Titanic Overlord
by Forsaken and Darklost
Summary: An heir of a lost realm has gone missing...now Robin, exposed to a dark energy, finds himself following a destiny shrouded in darkness...but he will not be alone. M Rated, for language, strong violance, and adult material. Harem-pairing.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer:** I do not own _Teen Titans_ or _Overlord_, _Soul Calibur IV_, _Fable_, _Legacy of Kain_, _The_ _Legend of Dragoon_, plus more. They are the rightful property of Cartoon Network/DC Comics, Namco, Triumph Studios, Lionhead Studios, Silicon Knight/Crystal Dynamics, and Sony Computer Entertainment.

**A/N:** This was inspired by reading some fanfics based off the hit video game: "Overlord." I just got into the game myself and just got the second one for it: "Overlord II" This takes place right after "Teen Titans: Trouble in Tokyo" and "Overlord: Hell Raising". If none of you are familiar with the plot of that game, I'll give you a short version. Basically, the Overlord from the first game goes around his conquered land dealing with gates from The Abyss, and in term, re-battling all the previous fallen "Heroes", and finally the Abyss Lord, but in turn was trapped in the Abyss and made its new Lord. Unbeknownst to him, though, was that his mistress, (Rose or Velvet: whoever you pick as his mistress in the game), is pregnant with his son.

This story is my take on that child and what happened to him and what he will become…for better or for worse.

Also I want to add that this will be a dark-based story and a harem will be developed throughout the process of the story, so anything can happen. So if anyone has a problem of their favorite character turning dark or any sexual interaction, then please refrain from reading and pick something more to your taste. This is the only warning I will give and if I receive and negative replies, then I will feed them to my Minions …they like negative thoughts, tastes like chocolate to them.

(Giblet: YAY!! Chocolate!

Gubben: _Plz_, can we have some now!?

Moldy: Yes, yes, can master give us some chocolate. Chocolate so yummy!

Gnarl: SILENCE, you imbeciles, can't you see the master is trying to give very important news to his subjects…Dah, I mean readers?

Lord Darkmoon: (shaking head in irritation.) Gnarl, I thought I asked you to keep those three fools locked up until after the announcements?

Gnarl: I'm sorry, Sire…Giblet and Gubben found out Moldy's head was a perfect bludgeon for ramming the door down...Which they used him for right after they heard you mention chocolate…Umm, you wouldn't by chance have some, Milord?

Lord Darkmoon: (left eye twitching but summons up a dozen chocolate bars.) Have at it…

Jester: Thank you, Lord of sweetie treats!

Lord Darkmoon: (Narrows eyes) Gnarl…

Gnarl: Yes, Milord?

Jester: Go hang Jester by his small toe at the highest point of the Tower.

Gnarl: (Clasping his hands and then quickly grabbing a few chocolate bars for himself.) With great pleasure, sire!)

***********

"Normal Speaking"

'_Normal Thinking'_

"_Soul Calibur Speaking"_

"_**Demonic/Soul Edge Speaking"**_

***********

**The Boy who will Rule**

"_Hurry, my Mistress, hurry! They are coming! We must see that you and your child are away!" said an old, high, scratchy voice, pulling on his mistress's hand as he led her through a secret tunnel._

"_Why are they after us? We didn't attack them!" said a feminine voice that at one time may have lured a man to do anything she desired, but now age had weight that voice and soften it with fear. She clutched at a small bundle of cloth close to her chest, within the soft crying of an infant could be heard._

"_There's no time for any of that now, my Mistress!" replied the old voice. "We must get you and the child to safety before it is too late!" The owner of that voice hobbled next to his Lady, but seemed to be shrouded in shadows, save for his yellow glowing eyes with something like a lantern hanging over his head. The only other noticeable figure about him was that he was very short, only coming up to his Lady's knees._

_They ran further down an old, moss-ridden tunnel until they came into an old huge cavern, where a hidden port rested at a rocky edge where the ocean licked at it. An old warship was already being prepped to launch as the two made their way to the port. The old one that spoke helped his Mistress onboard the ship, but he himself did not get on._

"…_Wha?" said the Mistress before the old one held up a wrinkled hand. _

"_I must remain and see that the Lord's heir has something to return to, my lady," the old one sighed, bowing lowly to her. "It would just not do for the next lord of darkness to return to a pile of rubble. Please, be safe on your journey, my Mistress."_

_The woman nodded and clutched the small infant closer to her. "I will…Gna--!!"_

_The cavern suddenly shook from some tremendous force. _

_The old one looked hastily around the shaking cavern. "Blast them!" He pointed at some bizarre little yellowish-brown creatures that were running around in fright on the dock, who were responsible for the prepping of the warship. "Browns! Get her Ladyship and the infant lord out of here! We must see to their safety!"_

_The brown creatures immediately forgot their fears at the solid command from the old one and started working getting the warship to leave. As soon as the last rope was untied and the warship was away from the dock, the little creatures ran down below deck, where soon huge ores popped out of the sides of the warship and started rowing the warship out of the shaking cavern. The Mistress watched from the wheel at the old one as they departed for a land unknown. The old one waved to her one final time and wished for the first time in his long life for the protection and well-being of his Mistress and his master's heir. _

_The old one shook his head sadly and quickly turned to the few brown creatures that remained on the dock. "Okay, you puss-sacks! We got work to do!" _

_The brown creatures saluted their superior and scurried away into small holes hidden in the cavern walls. The old one stroked his long, grey goatee and started to hobble to one of the small holes. "Yes, we must prepare to the return of the boy…the boy who will rule all…as you did once our lord." _

_Unknown to the old one, as soon as the warship reached the ocean, a wicked storm had greeted it and was throwing everything it had at the vessel. Lightening blazed all around as the wind tried to knock the occupants onboard over to be taken by the unforgiving sea. The Mistress was holding on dearly to her child and was trying to make her way down below to wait out the worst of the storm, when a dark figure appeared in her path. It was dressed in black robes with a silver helmet decorated with spiky horns. _

"_Y-You!" gasped the Mistress, gazing in disbelief at the figure blocking her path. "You…you cannot be alive!"_

"_What you think matters very little…I want the child," the dark figure said in a cold, raspy voice, reaching out with a spiky gauntlet hand. "Give him to me and I will let you live…"_

_The Mistress backed away from the dark figure. "Never…I won't let you use him as a tool!"_

"_Foolish girl…you had your chance," the dark figure said as it brandished a black longsword from the sheath hidden in its robes. The sword immediately began to glow with an eerie evil light. "I was actually going to keep my promise…but your defiance has cost you any _mercy_ from me…"_

_It raised the sword up to touch the flat of the blade to its forehead and positioned it to strike her. But before it could, a brown creature with a jester's hat and wand had jumped on top of the figure's head and began beating its wand on the figure's shrouded face._

"_You no hurt the soon-to-be boss, blacky!" it hissed, banging harder on the figures head._

_The dark figure let out a frustrated roar and swung his sword wildly around him. The Mistress was unfortunate when she tried to take advantage of the distraction and run. Just as she was about to try and get around the dark figure, he struck at her with his sword, slicing her along the back and leaving a deep gash in its wake. She cried out and fell to the deck, dropping her child by accident. _

"_No!" she cried, as she watched the infant slide away from her as the ocean's waves tilted the warship, causing the infant to slide toward its side and most likely, its doom. The jester-like creature spotted the child and jumped off the figure and landed on its belly and launched itself on the wet, slippery deck toward the infant._

"_No worries, Mistress! Jester will keep young master safe!" the brown creature proclaimed, and as it was nearing the child, it began speaking in a bizarre tongue and magic began to encircle it._

"_Yes…Jester…get him…away from…here," the Mistress pleaded, quickly losing consciousness as her life's essence pooled out from her wound. "…Keep him….safe…." And she saw no more._

_Jester had finished his spell just as he grabbed the bundle of cloth, and the two vanished from the sight. _

"_Damn you, you miserable wreck!" the dark figure cursed at the jester-creature. "You won't keep him from me forever! I will find him and I will have what is rightfully mine!"_

_The dark figure vanished as he had appeared, letting the storm do as it pleased to the warship. It forced it to rock back and forth before it soon toppled over and disappeared under the dark, cold water…._

***********

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Robin awoke in a cold sweat, not aware that he was reaching out to grab at the air. His chest heaved heavily for air that just didn't want to stay in his grasping lung. He soon calmed his breathing and rubbed the sweat from his brow and got out of his bed, not caring that his sheets were all over the room. For the last fifteen nights he had awoken to see his bed completely messed up, even one time he awoke to find his sheets all ripped up.

He grabbed his mask from his stand and put it on before he left his room and entered the bathroom down the hall. He went straight to the sink and turned on the faucet and splashed cold water on his face. It wasn't until then that he realized that his body had the shakes and he grasped the edge of the sink until they went away.

"….Why, why do I keep having that dream of her?" murmured Robin to himself, gripping the sink for dear life.

"You had it again, huh?" a familiar, calm, monotone voice asked.

Robin glanced to bathroom door to see Raven leaning on the doorframe, with a rare show of emotion on her usual stoic face. Although, ever since they defeated her father, Raven had been slowly opening up and showing the side she used to fight to hide. What's more she didn't seem to mind in the least that she could. In truth from her recent reactions since she defeated her father…she acted librated. And she truly was after she told her teammates her past and the kind of connection she had to her demonic father. He no longer could influence her spirit or mind, allowing her better control over her powers and in a sense, letting her be human.

"Yeah, same dream again," grumbled Robin, running a hand over his soaked face. "…Sorry, if I woke you up."

Raven waved it off and shrugged. "Night owl, remember? I'm usually up at this time." She looked more concerned for him and tilted her head. "..How far did you get in the dream?" She had trying to help him understand the cause of these dreams, but so far nothing he mentioned made much since other than he seemed to be witnessing a very important event. Each night, the dream would get longer and longer, but always left Robin waking up screaming.

Robin sighed as he straightened back up and ran his wet hand through his spiky locks. "I actually got out into the ocean on that boat this time…and there was a man…a really evil man…He…he killed the woman." He could feel his eyes suddenly water up behind his mask.

Raven gasped softly and walked over to him, placing a hand on his shoulder. "…And the child, the one you said she was carrying. What happened to it?"

"…I think it survived. One of those weird little things I told you about…the funky looking jester. Anyway, it went after the child when it was sent sliding off the dock of the ship. It got to it and the two disappeared from sight, I think I heard it casting a spell, but it was too bizarre to understand…"

"It probably was, some spells aren't always spoken with a human tongue," informed Raven.

"I dunno, Raven…I just wish I understood why I keep having this dream…and why I feel like it's really important that I remember something," groaned Robin in frustration. He sighed once more and grabbed a dry towel to dry his face and hands. "You better go back to bed, Raven…it's late."

Before she could respond the tower's alarms went off.

"…I think it's a bit late now," replied Raven, quickly leaving to get wake up Beast Boy, knowing the green elf would sleep right through the blazing alarms, as he was a really heavy sleeper…and a loud one at that.

Robin shook his head and quickly ran back to his room to gear up.

**********

At the National Museum, a swarm of Slade drones were securing the building as their master roamed the place at his leisure. He knew it wouldn't be long before the Teen Titans would arrive, in fact, he counted on them making an appearance. This time things would be different and he would soon have the key to their destruction, and then he could take control of this city once and for all, then…conquer the rest. He walked calmly down the hall, eyeing whatever display that caught his interest and already planning on adding them to his own personal collection as soon as he established his goal. His cold single eye soon came to the display he had been searching for, the Tomb of Siegfried.

It was a brand new display that the National Museum had set up when this discovery was made. From what he learned from the report about the tomb, it was the resting place of a fable legendry knight who once wielded two mighty swords; one that was supposedly cursed while the other was pure. The knight only wielded the swords one at a time, having obtained the cursed sword first and was believed to have turned him into a fierce warrior that inspired terror to all he faced. How and why he broke the curse was still in debate, but the discoverer of the tomb believed that the knight realized he was being controlled by the curse, and thus, wanted to break out, which led him to seek out the pure sword to end the cursed one forever before it fell into the wrong hands.

But the fool who found this great discovery only got part of the truth.

The real story was that indeed, the Knight Siegfried, became a terror but not from some curse on the sword, but rather the sword itself. It was a demonic sword which origins were lost from the passage of time. It was only meant for one thing and one thing only, to bring death and calamity to the world. The knight was possessed and used by the sword to carry out its evil will, until its will was weakened by a traveling warrior who wished to see the blade and its host destroyed and wielded the spirit sword. In its weakened moment, the knight was able to cast the blade away from himself, and thereby ending its control over him…but the sword's will didn't stop there. So the knight sought out the sword that weakened the demonic sword and used it to stop the evil blade once and for all. But it turned out the two swords were intertwined, they were polar opposites. The spirit sword did not really destroy its evil one, but encased it in crystal along with the knight who it used to carry out its own agenda.

It would have encased the whole world in crystal had some mysterious figure appear and halt the spirit sword's power and contain it only to a tower where the two swords clashed for the final time.

The one-eyed villain also learned that the mysterious warrior sealed the knight along with the two swords within a tomb made of enchanted steel. But time and human curiosity revealed the remains of the tower and soon, the discovery of the knight's tomb. Now he stood before the tomb on its display stand, being illuminated by one single light above it, with a few huge photographs of the rumble that was left of the tower.

The villain admired the craftsmanship of the tomb, feeling _slightly_ ashamed he was going to destroy it to get to what he desired within it. It wasn't like most tombs found, as this one was crafted for someone to actually stand inside it rather than lay as was the common style. Its metallic surface retained its color, as if it was freshly forged yesterday. On the front of the tomb, the lid, he guest, was decorated with two people fighting with the two huge words. On the left side of the lid looked to be the knight wielding the spirit sword. On the right, was a figure he didn't know, but this figure wore frightening armor and seemed to wield the demonic sword. His eagerness soon won over his admiration of the tomb, as he started toward the tomb, wishing to claim his prizes.

Just as he knocked the turnstiles that wrapped around the display, he heard the faint sound of combat taking place.

"A little too late, Robin…I have the keys to my destiny," said the one-eyed man with a cold, calculating voice, as he pulled an odd-looking device from his grey Utility belt and placed it on the tomb.

An electrical pulse immediately shot out from the device and encircled the tomb, canceling the old enchantments placed on it long enough for him to put a few explosives on the tomb. He backed away and activated them, watching in mild excitement as the lid of the tomb was blown off. When the smoke quickly cleared, his single eye widened in awe at the contents of the tomb, for standing proud as the day of his victory stood the Knight Siegfried himself in his crystallized form. He looked to be a truly powerful warrior from the look of his built and the now crystallized armor he wore. His face was slightly hard to make out as the crystallized form wasn't very generous, but he could just make out a long scar pattern running over his right eye down to his cheek.

The villain merely grunted. "…A powerful man, but still a fool in the end."

His eye quickly scanned the rest of the tomb and his eye widened in triumph. Lying in a criss-cross pattern at the knights feet were the swords. He quickly snatched the two swords from their resting spots and examined them. The spirit sword remained in its true form, as he guess it believed it was too pure as to not change as it did to its counter-part blade and the knight into crystal. The blade itself looked to be made of a denser form of crystal and double-bladed, with a glowing bluish-white orb resting in where the blade met the hilt, where a few spikes of crystal rose up to give the sword a more imposing form, and acting as a form of hand-guard for the wielder's hand. The blade itself was over six feet in length, another four feet when you added the hilt, and broaden out from the tip to the hilt, but it was as light as a feather in his grip.

He quickly gazed at the demonic sword and frowned. As the information he gathered proved true, the sword was indeed encased in crystal, but even in its state, he could see why this sword struck so much fear. Like its opposite, it was the same length and double-bladed, but in place of an orb was what looked like a living eye. The spikes that made up the hand-guard looked to be carapace, organic-like, as did the very blade itself, and like its opposite; it was just as easy to hold, even if its size would lead to believing otherwise. At the end of the hilt, though, was a small set of blades on each side of the end, giving this sword a more imposing, frightful appearance.

Looking at the sword more, he worried that it might be harder than he believed in using its powers. He had to find a way to free it so he could use both the swords powers to fulfill his goals.

"_You will not free Soul Edge…it will remain trapped for all times…" _a feminine voice echoed.

He stared at the spirit sword in wonderment before smiling cruelly. "We'll see about that…"

"_I will not allow you to use me, your soul is too full of darkness,"_ the sword replied coldly, as its orb began to glow and a white light began surrounding the villains hand…but nothing else happened. _"What is this? My powers…."_

"Won't work on me, you silly sword," chuckled the villain. "You see I made sure I could hold you without suffering the same fate you bestowed on your last wielder. Your powers won't work on me, not with the seals I intergraded throughout my armor. You're just a sword now and you are my sword to use as I please."

"_You will fail, dark soul…you will never a get away with your ambitions,"_ replied the spirit sword sternly.

"I can and I have…and to prove it, I demand you tell me your true name," commanded the villain.

The sword wasn't about to give in, but it suddenly felt its will suppressed and it gave into the command. _"Soul Calibur…"_

The villain chuckled coldly and gave the blade a practiced swing, already loving the sound the blade made as it cut through the air. "Now…I can begin my reign."

Unaware by the villain, a small figure was hunched behind one of the displays giggling excitedly. "…He might be the one…He's exactly the image of evil…..hehehehehe!" It peeked from its hiding spot at the intimidating one-eyed villain.

"Slade!" a young voice suddenly shouted.

The now self-claimed 'Slade' turned to the owner of the voice and narrowed his visible eye in mocking mirth. "Ah, Robin. I was wondering when you would get past my drones. You must be slipping if you couldn't handle that small force I brought." He was pleased to see the hero all alone, surmising the boy letting his teammates deal with the drones while he pushed on to confront him. His poor judgment and overestimation of his skills were about to do him in for the final time.

"Shut it, Slade!" growled Robin, and then his eyes locked on the two massive swords in the villain's hands, frowning. "I didn't think you were into antique weaponry, Slade. That's a bit low-class for you, isn't it?"

Slade chuckled coldly. "If you only knew what I was holding, Robin, you wouldn't be so bold…"

"Even if I did, I won't let it get in my way of stopping you!" replied Robin, taken out two Birdarangs and combining them, reconfiguring into a red-and-yellow bladed longsword.

Slade stalked away from the display and posed his new swords in an offensive stance, rising Soul Calibur up in front of him and Soul Edge behind him. "We'll see, but I will thank you, Robin. You've given me an excellent opportunity to try out their powers!"

He charged at Robin, swinging Soul Calibur at him. Robin ducked the strike and thrust with his sword, only to be blocked by the crystallized Soul Edge, then had to leap back as Slade kept spinning and slashed at him once more. Slade smirked at Soul Edge, glad that even in its state, it was still durable to use in combat. His musing ended when he quickly brought up Soul Calibur to block the vertical slash Robin aimed at him. He pushed the feeble weapon away from his elegant blade and chuckled.

"You will have to do better than this, Robin," sneered Slade, charging at him once more and jabbing with Soul Calibur.

Robin side-stepped the blade and was shocked when he was blown back by some kind of force around the blade. He was able to regain his balance before his head was taken off by Soul Edge and managed to stop the sword's progress. _'This one isn't as strong as the other…I'm guessing, Slade hasn't unlocked this sword's abilities yet…that's one relief.'_

He started to push the blade away from him, when he caught sight of the weird eye at the center of the blade. For a half a second, he thought it was just an odd ornament for a weapon, but his thoughts changed when the eye began to glow.

Both combatants halted and stared at the demonic sword.

Robin took that moment to get a safe distance away from Slade. Just as he backed away, the faint light in the weird sword died. Slade stared at the sword for a moment before he began to come to a conclusion about the Soul Edge.

"…It seems it needs someone to awaken it," said Slade darkly, his visible eye narrowing in amusement. "So all it takes is a life to unlock this sword from its prison." He slowly brought his eye down on Robin and smiled behind his mask.

Robin felt his spine tingle in alarm from that look. "…Oh, great."

Slade came at him now full-force, no longer caring of toying with his one-time apprentice. He wanted the power in the sword and if it cost the life of his most disappointing rival…what better joy than to kill two birds with one stone, at least one literal bird in this case. He pushed Robin back with slash after slash; using Soul Calibur's powerful blows the most to weaken Robin's defenses.

Robin knew he couldn't hold out for much longer against Slade's almost berserk-like state. He was almost wild with his blows, not caring for the controlled, fluid pattern of combat he normally conducted in a fight. Now he moved like the madman Robin always knew him to be. It would have been a simple thing to handle, were said madman not wielding such powerful swords. The oddest thing was whenever Slade did use the evil-looking sword; it would shine with that strange light, that same light, seemed to drive Slade on faster to complete the wanted deed.

"I'll give your life to the sword! Then no one will stop me! I will conquer everything!" declared Slade, madness clearly shining in his single eye.

He spun on his heels, swinging both swords at Robin and in the process, breaking his longsword and knocking Robin flat on his back. Before Robin could attempt to get up, Slade slammed his foot on his stomach; forcing the air out of his lungs and making him see sparkles of light in his vision.

"We had a fun game…but it's become boring, Robin," sneered Slade, posing Soul Edge's bladed tip over Robin's chest. "But now I have what I need, and sadly, you won't be around to see everything you care for burned to the ground!"

Robin groaned and tried to free himself from under the madman's foot, but the cold tip of Soul Edge on his chest froze his progress. The eye on the sword began to glow brighter than ever before, and the crystal it was coated looked to be cracking.

"Any last words, Robin?" asked Slade coldly.

"…It won't end here, Slade," vowed Robin. "Someone will stop you, one way or another. You will be brought to justice."

"What heroic nonsense," growled Slade darkly, narrowing his eye in contempt at Robin and readied to thrust Soul Edge right through him.

Then the strangest thing happened, Soul Edge halted his arm.

"What? What is going on here?!" growled Slade, straining in frustration to plunge the sword into Robin. "I'm giving you what you want!"

Soul Edge began to vibrate with power, its crystalline form burst from a shockwave of red-glowing power, knocking Slade's hold on the sword free and sending him crashing to the floor.

Soul Edge floated over Robin as the crystal coating fell off it to reveal its true form. The sword was indeed demonic as its appearance made one to believe it was made from organic as well as metallic components. The eye in the center of the blade blinked and blazed red and looked down at Robin from where it floated, glowing brightly with dark energy.

"_**You…you are the one,"**_ a frightening, masculine voice growled from the sword.

"Uh…the one what?" uttered Robin, staring in puzzlement at the demonic sword.

"_**Heh, heh…the one I was truly forged for," **_replied Soul Edge, crackling with bluish lightening. _**"Our fates have now intertwined and soon…You will know your true destiny."**_

Robin had no idea what it was talking about, but before he could deny its claim, the sword suddenly plunged itself into him. Where it stabbed him, a dark light wrapped around Soul Edge as it slowly began being absorbed into Robin's body.

"_**Now we will become one! The land will once again quake with fear!"**_ proclaimed Soul Edge as it continued to push inside Robin.

"NO!" cried Robin, clawing at the sword as it pushed deeper into him, trying to pull it back out.

It proved futile as the demonic sword was still being absorbed into his body, until it finally vanished from sight, leaving just a faint glow of dark energy where it merged into him.

"_NO! We must not allow this!"_ roared Soul Calibur. _"Dark soul! You must destroy that human before it is too late!"_

Slade growled as he got annoyed by the sword's command. He squeezed the handle and stabbed its blade into the ground. "Understand this, Soul Calibur. I am the master, not you. I will destroy him as I see fit, not because of you deem it so."

He felt a sudden quake of fear from the sword. He gazed in amazement at the sensation and realized that the spirit sword was truly afraid of the transaction that just accord. It baffled the mastermind for a moment, until he suddenly heard a demonic-like roar rip from Robin. He looked up to see Robin floating above the floor and crackling with red and blue lightening. His roar began breaking glass cases around him, blowing over whatever wasn't bolted down on their stands. A shockwave of power erupted soon after from his body, blinding everything. The shockwave traveled throughout the museum and soon through Jump City, alerting every living person in the city.

Robin felt like his entire body was ripping itself apart and then quickly putting itself back together harshly. In way, that was exactly what was happening to him as Soul Edge was now reconfiguring his body into a much stronger one, it would not allow the body it merged into to be weak in any form. It strengthened his bones but making them denser to allow him to keep his agility, then it worked on making his muscles more coiled and durable, much like that of a great cat, which would also allow him to have form of grace and strength. Next were his organs, toughening them and even ridding them of whatever toxins or genetic faults they had. Lastly, were his senses which it enhanced to great degrees, but not enough to make it too painful for its host until he could adjust. As it did all this, there were some outward changes taken place, this was odd for even Soul Edge as it did not do anything to cause any outward changes…yet. After some time, there would have been, but as it merged with its host's soul, it found something of great interest drawing out to pull it towards it, a darkness one of which even in its long existence never imagined to reside in a mortal soul. The source slithered around Soul Edge, embracing it into itself, and for the first time in since it existence…it felt whole and satisfied.

On the outside with Robin, the first noticeable change was his hair. It bleached out to a fine platinum white and spiked upward in almost crown-like fashion. Then his skin seemed to darken to a dark shade of blue as veins of eerie blue energy worked their way over the darkened skin. Then his mask burned away as his eyes blazes with an odd yellowish-red light, leaving behind haunting orange orbs where his normal eyes once rested. Even his costume began to change with him, its once bright coloring began to darken, the yellow interior of his cape darkened until it was as black as the outer side, his green spandex and gloves blackened until they were as dark as night, and at the end of his glove's fingers extended until they looked like talons. The bright red and green on the short sleeves of his shirt darkened to a solid crimson, and the R symbol that once adorned his chest twisted until it formed an O symbol with a jagged L symbol slicing through it. His yellow Utility belt blackened and warped the arsenal resting inside them. The last things to change were his combat boots; the metal around them expanded and formed plated-coverings that traveled up to his knees, with spikes in forms of talons at the ends of his feet.

As if the sudden burst of power and the physical changes weren't enough, the roof was blasted open as a stream of lightening descended down over Robin and set ablaze to everything around him.

Slade threw up his arms in a poor attempt to survive the blast, but to his luck, Soul Calibur created a barrier made from what looked like ice. It took the full force of the blow until the flames died down and the lightening around Robin stopped, leaving a crackling orb of power around Robin, until this too was absorbed into his body. It finally came to an end and Robin fell to the scorched floor non-moving and unconscious.

"_Now! While it is still vulnerable, you must smite the corrupted abomination before it awakens or all is lost!" _pleaded Soul Calibur, hoping the greedy man would see to its reason.

Slade glared at the spot Robin lied and stalked over to him. "…That power was supposed to be mine."

"_That power is too evil for anyone to control! That boy's soul has been forfeited when Soul Edge took it over. Destroy them both…and then you will have the greatest power,"_ said Soul Calibur, wanting to urge the man on, even if it had to resort to a bit of bribery. Besides…once it pierced the corrupted body, it would once again begin its work and create the perfect world in its image…a world of pureness, as it tried to do once before…

As if reading the swords exact thoughts, Slade stabbed Soul Calibur in the ground and drew a collapsible sword from his armor and unfurled it, and then posed it over Robin's chest.

"_No, you fool! I must be the one that stabs the cursed thing! Only my power will stop it!"_roared Soul Calibur.

"And trap the world in crystal like you tried to do with that foolish knight? I think not," sneered Slade. "Besides, I wish to keep Soul Edge and use its power, as I will use you. I will have what is mine!" He tightened his grip on his sword and lifted it to stab the fallen Boy Wonder.

"_Azarath Metrion Zinthos!_"

Slade was thrown to the side as a ruined display case covered with dark energy slammed into him.

The Titans stormed in with Raven leading them and flying quickly to Robin's side with Starfire right next to her.

"Robin, beloved Robin!" cried Starfire, quickly breaking into tears as she saw the state of her boyfriend.

A few droplets of tears were forming at the corners of Raven's eyes as she looked at the startling changes done to their leader. "…What happened to him?"

Cyborg and Beast Boy let the girls handle Robin while they moved in to confront Slade. Cyborg already had his arm shifted into its Cannon mode and firing off a few short bursts at Slade. Beast Boy changed into a Raptor and swiftly circled around the villain to pounce on his exposed back. Slade grunted in pain when he felt talons rip into him and quickly rolled forward to try and shake off the changeling. Beast Boy kept his claws in, but when Slade surprised him by doing a complete roll and kicking up, it loosened his grip enough for Slade to elbow him in the chest. Slade turned with his elbow strike and swung Soul Calibur at Beast Boy's head, musing for a second if his head would stay a raptor's, which if it did, he could mount in his trophy room. His curiosity was thankfully left unanswered as Cyborg came up behind and rammed his right shoulder into his slashed up back. Pain blinded him for a moment before rage took its place when he found himself once more on the ground before the Titans.

This wasn't how it was supposed to be. It was their time to fall and lay before his feet, not him, not again. He wanted to show them he would not stand for anymore humiliation, but this strange turn of events has proven too out of hand for him to manage, and to add insult to injury, that foolish green furball actually landed a decent blow on him. Then there was Soul Calibur who kept screaming and trying to force him to destroy Robin.

No, he could not allow the sword to have its way, if he did, then he would end up like Siegfried and become its tool rather than the other way around. That just struck a bigger blow to his pride as it meant he had to retreat to heal, and to master the disobedient sword. Normally, he could just ignore the pain and handle them, but he was also fighting a battle of wills with Soul Calibur, who seemed to trying to 'motivate' him kill Robin against his will. He could feel it trying to inch itself control over his body and move him forward to attack. Having a sword that won't obey wouldn't do for him…he needed to get it to understand it would do as 'he' instructed, not it. He growled lightly to himself in frustration and pulled out a flash bomb and tossed it at the two approaching Titans. It went off, blinding them, and giving him ample time to depart, vowing the next time would be different and he would be the victor…

The two flinched back until their vision returned when the flash died, then only to find Slade had disappeared with that weird crystal sword he was wielding.

"Man, that guy is getting on my last nerve!"grumbled Cyborg, right before he turned to check Robin's state and went wide eye at his friend's bizarre change.

"Dude, what happened to Robin?!" said Beast Boy worriedly, rushing over to the girls.

Starfire was crying while holding Robin close to her while Raven moved a glowing hand over him.

"Something with massive dark energy entered him," stated Raven, who was trying to focus on her work and trying to hold back her own set of tears. "Whatever Slade did to him, it was really…really bad."

""Come on, let's get him back to the tower, fast! Let's see if can't fix this," said Cyborg.

Starfire nodded her head silently and picked him up and they quickly headed back to the tower. When everyone had finally felt, the hidden observer did a back-flip in excitement.

"I found him! I found the master!" screeched the small observer before it scurried off to follow the Titans.

**********

Somewhere deep in an underground place, called the Netherworld by its new inhabits, where a black enormous tower recited, began to come to life as torches blazed to life. Little creatures began running around excitedly as they made their way to a huge room where a black throne with molten magma pouring down behind it was. In the center of the room, a small creature with gray skin and white hair was stroking its beard with a four clawed fingered hand. The little creature was dressed better than all the others, obviously placing him in a higher position above the rest. Its attire consisted of a sleeveless grey robe with a huge crimson scarf around his neck and shoulders. On his back, he wore a plate-like pauldron that went over his shoulders and plated down over his back. Tied to the pauldron was a crooked pole with a little glowing stone that hung above the old creature's head, acting like a lantern. His long-pointed, slanted ears perked up as the platform in the center of the room came to life with bluish lightening and metallic-like spikes opened and descended from the ceiling above it. His glowing yellow eyes widened in excitement and clasped his hands together eagerly. He watched on as the lightning opened up a portal to a strange land he never seen before, if the odd towers and lights all over the bizarre city were any giveaways.

"It is time!" said the old creature, giggling sinisterly, rubbing his hands together, then glared over his shoulder. "Giblet! Get your lazy hide in over here, NOW!"

One of the brown creatures came rushing over, wearing only a loincloth and a leather tunic, and brown gloves, but in his hand he held a wooden club and was bashing any unlucky Brown that got in it way, laughing madly.

The old one walked over to him "All right you! You were the leader of our best surveillance/espionage team we've ever had! Now it's time you got back to work and scouted out the location the Tower has sensed our new master! You will take a small squad of Browns with you and search for the master."

Giblet nodded his head enthusiastically at his giving mission, smashing the ground with his club to show his excitement.

"Now go! Don't waste any time with anything else. We must find the missing heir at all costs!" ordered the old one, pointing toward the crackling portal.

Giblet saluted to the old creature and waved at four other Browns with his club to follow him. The five Browns then leapt without a single thought about their well-being to the strange land, hoping as did the old Brown watching them leave that they would once again have a master to serve…

**********

**A/N: **Thank you for your time in reading. Plz, give me your thoughts about this, as it would help speed up the next update all the more. Also, if anyone is wondering why Gnarl (who I imagine you all know is the old Brown) has two eyes. Well, only in the opening in the first Overlord do you see him with one eye. During the game, and in the Opening of Overlord: Minions, and Overlord II, he has both eyes, so I'm going to go with that. As for what Soul Edge has done to Robin…well, you'll just have to wait and see…._**Hehehehehehehehehe….MINIONS! Let us depart and pillage!**_

Giblet: YAY! We get to smash!

Grubby: And kill!

Moldy: And drink!

Jester: And dance!!!

All minions: ….

Lord Darkmoon: But first…Get that damn jester!!

(Screams of agony soon follow.)

Lord Darkmoon: Ahem, while that is being dealt with…I know ask…rather demand…your votes on who will be in Robin's harem. You can only vote once per chapter and give me a reason why they should be added to the harem, otherwise the vote will not count.

List of possible candidate:

**Blackfire (0)**

**Raven (0)**

**Argent (0)**

**Kitten (0)**

**Jinx (0)**

**Terra (0)**

I did not add Starfire as I do not see her working in a dark-based harem…and I do not like her!! As for kitten, I have my reasons for adding her, but you will have to wait and see. If you wish to add anyone else to the list, do so and their names will be added to the list.

_**Till then…**_


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer:** I do not own _Teen Titans_ or _Overlord_, _Soul Calibur IV_, _Fable_, _Legacy of Kain_, _The_ _Legend of Dragoon_, _Prototype, Infamous, _plus more to come. They are the rightful property of Cartoon Network/DC Comics, Namco, Triumph Studios, Lionhead Studios, Silicon Knight/Crystal Dynamics, and Sony Computer Entertainment, etc. Any claim I have is merely the plot and making nothing from this…sadly.

**A/N: **Ah, it's nice to see this story has taken off so well. And it seems enough people have replied their desires. Very well, then, I shall grant them what they have asked…but for anyone who wishes to have Starfire in the harem, I've already put my foot down and stated: NO. Also, I've already stated that this will be a dark-based story and there will be adult content, like in the summary, so if you are offended or underage, then discontinue reading this story. If you do, then I cannot stop you, but I have given a warning, and left it to you to decide to continue or not with this story. Also, this is a fanfic, and one no one should take so literal. It's all for people to enjoy, but if people wish to make a big deal, I can't stop them, but I ask they show a little respect, as I in term show respect to my readers. Another thing I wish to add is I'm aware that Rose is the canon mistress and the entire plot of Overlord 2, and I already have incorporated it into this one, including Queen Fay and her role in this story, but it won't run exactly like the story-plot for Overlord 2, that is all I will give away right now.

(Gnarl: Indeed, we mustn't be careless and aloof, my Lord. That just wouldn't do when creating a world of darkness!

Giblet: What were rules again…?

Lord Darkmoon: Only one vote for one character each chapter, and to give a reason why they voted for that person.

Moldy: …Umm, could you say that again?

Gnarl: Idiots! I'll make you a note and put it in the Spawning Pit, stop bugging the master with simpleton questions!

Lord Darkmoon: Ahem…May I continue?

Gnarl: Oh, of course, of course…my apologies.

Lord Darkmoon: Now then…_**Let evil finds it ways….**_)

***********

"Normal Speaking"

'_Normal Thinking'_

"_Soul Calibur Speaking"_

"_**Demonic/Soul Edge Speaking"**_

***********

**Evil Heritage**

Within the Titans Tower, the titans were all in the Infirmary, waiting on Cyborg and Raven's examination of Robin.

"Please, tell us we can undo the harm that Slade has done to Robin," pleaded Starfire.

"…I dunno, Star. I don't even know what the heck Slade did in the first place," replied Cyborg, while not looking up from his scanner. "But whatever he did, I can tell you when Rob wakes up, he'll be a whole new man. You should see this!" Cyborg turned on a larger monitor above Robin's bed for them to see, then pointing at the abnormally high readings of Robin's anatomy. "See those readings? They're almost off the chart! It's like, he just got super-charged and I wouldn't be surprised if he could give Superman a run for his money!"

"Whatever was done, we need to fix it," stated Raven sternly. "Robin's entire body has been exposed to an over-large amount of negative energy. There's no telling how it will affect Robin when he wakes up. He might wake up and start doing…things that aren't like Robin."

"Like what for example?"wondered Beast Boy.

Raven tucked her cloak around her, as if she was suddenly chilly, and in a way, she sort of was as she imagined just the kind of things Robin would do under the influence of such massive negative energy. "…I doubt I could even come close to what he might do…but remember those evil-versions of you Trigon created when you fought him?"

"Ah, don't remind me!" cringed Beast Boy.

"Imagine your evil-version times a hundred…No, make that times a thousand!"said Raven seriously. "He could become someone far worse than Slade or any villain we've faced…"

Starfire gasped almost ran to Robin to hug his sleeping body, but Cyborg managed to catch her and ease her back.

"No, no, no! We must not allow that to happen! Robin could never become something so evil," cried Starfire, looking ready to cry.

"Until we can figure out how to reverse the effects of whatever was done to him…we're gonna have to confine him in the Seal room," stated Cyborg. "If he is super-charged and does start showing abnormal abilities, that room is our best chance of keeping him contained from hurting anyone and himself."

"…But, what if…what if we cannot reverse what was done?" questioned Starfire fearfully.

"…Then we keep him contained until we do find a way," replied Cyborg with a deep frown on his face. "And if we can't, then we'll have to find a way to keep him locked up permanently until we come up with something else."

Raven looked upon Robin with sadness in her eyes. That would be no life for him, not for all the deeds he's done, all the people he saved. To remain locked up in a room because of an accident, never knowing why his own friends did that to him…It would be cruel of them to, but then again, if Robin did become a nightmare, an evil unlike any they've seen…would that be for the greater good then? She still remembered when she was placed in that room to try and keep her father's influence from reaching her…she remembered how cold and lonely it felt to be locked up like that, away from her friends, even the bond that she shared unbeknownst to the others with Robin was closed off from her…and that made her feel empty and broken. What she never would admit to her friends was when Trigon did get through to her, regardless of the seals in the room…she almost willingly obeyed him, just to get out of that room and feel her bond with Robin again…even if it meant damning everyone to a literal hell. What would he think and do when he was locked in there? She couldn't bring herself to imagine what betrayal he'd feel when he found out what they were planning on doing.

"…Let's get him in the Seal room before he does awaken," grunted Cyborg.

Raven turned away with a tearful sob, turning away so no one saw the single tear drop fall from her eye.

"Yeah," agreed Beast Boy, feeling regretful for what they had to do.

Starfire merely floated away, hugging herself and whispering to herself. "…This cannot be real….This cannot be real."

Cyborg finally began to wheel the bed out of the Infirmary, when Raven felt some sort of power pulse in her. She gasped and clutched at her chest and stared in awe at nothing. At that same moment, Robin's eyes opened and they shined like molten orbs of lava. The sudden action freaked out Cyborg and he pushed away from the bed, cursing faintly. Robin slowly began to roll off the bed and looked around, looking confused and frightened at the same time.

"What…What's happening to me?!" whimpered Robin before his body rippled with a weird red and black energy.

"Robin, please, calm down," said Raven softly. "You've been exposed to a massive amount of negative energy…and it seems to have caused some changes in you, but we are going to fix this…please, trust us."

Raven felt that massive pulse again when Robin unconsciously tapped into their bond. He instantly knew what they were planning on doing, and he could feel the huge amount of sorrow Raven felt for having to do it.

"…You want to put me in the Seal room…forever?" groaned Robin, trying to stand, but his legs kept wanting to give out on him.

"…I don't want to," whispered Raven as another tear fell from her eyes.

Robin felt himself wishing to cry from the amount of sorrow Raven was trying to hold back. He never could have imagined anyone have that much sadness in their being, especially someone like Raven who had supposedly trained herself to control her emotions. Although, he read her mind for a moment, he was still too naïve to the method to understand everything that he got from her. He was only able to deduce about the room because it was her recent thought, and he also got some of her memories of being in the Seal room, and then how she was crushed when her he learned his fate and her reluctance to it all. What happened next was a bitter anger he never knew could exist within him. His eyes blazed darkly and he looked at his other friends.

"You...One of you thought of putting me in there, didn't you?" growled Robin, clinching his fists, hissing instantly when he felt something sharp pierce his palms. He looked down and saw the talons that now adorned the end of his glove's fingertips. Ignoring the bizarre change, he glared back at his friends, namely Cyborg, and pointed a bloody talon at him. "You're forcing Raven to do something she doesn't wish to do!"

"Say what?" uttered Cyborg, blinking in confusion at his best friend and leader. "Hey, look man. We weren't sure what you were gonna be like when you woke up…We couldn't take a chance."

"_**So it was you!**_" roared Robin, scaring everyone with the volume of power in it. "You wanted me locked up and outta of the way…why? Why do you want me to be locked up, Cy? You know I'd never hurt my friends!"

"We weren't sure of that, Rob!" argued Cyborg, getting nervous at his friend's odd rage. "Raven said you were exposed to a large amount of negative energy…we were…"

"Shut it!" snarled Robin, stalking over, or trying to, toward Cyborg.

He tripped and was caught by Raven, who even though was feeling a bit scared of Robin at this moment, wanted to do anything she could to help him. "Please, Robin…we won't put you in the room. If you can calm down, we can figure this out…"

"R-Really?" whispered Robin, gazing at her in relief and felt that strange anger quickly disappear.

"I promise, we…" she was cut off when she heard a familiar hum of power.

"Sorry, Raven. But I think it's clear, he's not in his right mind. We gotta lock him up for his own good," stated Cyborg, shocking everyone, pointing his Sonic Cannon at Robin.

"Cy?" whispered Raven unbelievingly, hoping he was just fooling.

The serious stern set on his face showed otherwise. "Did you not just hear that freaky voice he just used? We can't be sure if he will or won't hurt anybody."

"I called you my friend…" growled Robin, staring heatedly at Cyborg.

"I still am, Rob. That's why I'm doing this…for your own sake," replied Cyborg, walking over to restrain him.

Seeing his approach, Robin panicked and an instinct deep inside him took over. All he knew was that one moment he was in Raven's arms, the next; he was falling out of the Infirmary's window. Now the problem was, the Infirmary was located on the highest floor of the tower…

But luckily for him, that same instinct that made him dash out the window angled him so he would fall toward the side of the tower. His talons quickly lashed out and they scratched into the concrete, slowing his descent but allowing him to continue down the tower until he touched firm ground.

He glared up at the tower, feeling a deep sense of betrayal and loss. Then he remembered Raven, who when he looked up at the broken window was looking down at him with utter sadness and regret. He did not blame her, and he never would, it wasn't her who wanted to confine him like some rapid dog…it was Cyborg, and possibly Beast Boy and Starfire…his own girlfriend! The thought made him rage internally, and he saw Raven clutch at her chest once more, seeing the foreign confused anger in her eyes. Yes, even from the far distance, Robin could oddly still make out every detail of her face and wondered…why hadn't he noticed her before? A part of him, maybe what remained of his old self, tried to reason that they weren't doing this out of harshness but for his safety, but when he saw, no felt Raven's feelings toward that room and what it meant…he knew he could not be locked up in it, he just couldn't. He didn't have much in terms of connections, his own relationship with his adoptive father and mentor were sketchy at best, but the bonds he made with his friend…with Raven…was one he would not stand to feel cut off, ever!

He was brought out of his brief brooding when he felt Raven reach out to him with their bond. He gazed up at her and felt the sudden urge to go back up to her, and he saw she wanted to go to him. She reached out the window with a delicate hand and he felt his own hand move up to reach for hers...

But then…he saw Cyborg loom over her and his arm raising to take aim at him and then he saw a flash of green light come flying out of the window as Starfire readied her Starbolts. His now heightened ears could hear Raven telling them to not attack him, wanting to talk sense to him, but the odd look Cyborg was giving her, the heavy frown on his face told Robin all he needed to know. Snarling in rage, he made a dash for the beach, not even for a second caring that he was planning on swimming the long distance from the island to the city's harbor. He just got to the edge when the ground around him lit up from discharged Starbolts. He snapped back to glare darkly at his redheaded girlfriend.

"Robin, please stop and come back with us," said Starfire. "I do not wish to harm you…my love."

Robin snorted in contempt and made for the rolling waves, hearing the singing buzz of more Starbolts being tossed at him. He crawled on the bottom before he got deeper into the sea, just barely missing one Starbolt that almost hit his right arm. He stroked as fast as he could and took a deep breath before submerging under the waves to hide from Starfire's aerial assault. He was amazed at how fast he was able to pull that off and even more so when he didn't feel the need for air coming over him as he dived deeper into the watery depths. He swam on until his glowing eyes caught sight of the logged poles that made up the support for the harbor's many docks, again amazed that his eyes weren't at all stinging from the exposure of salt water like they should be. By all rights, he should have been gasping for air a long while ago, and his eyes should be burning unmercifully, but none of that happened.

He soon swam to the surface and climbed up the closest log and flipped himself onto the dry dock. He slowly turned and glared at the tower that he called home, knowing he couldn't go back; not unless he'd let himself go back and be contained in that damned room. The very thought of actually allowing that to happen sent a shudder of fear down his spine. No, there was no going back, not until he could find a way to undo what that weird sword did to him. He needed to move now before they found him…before they try and lock him away.

He needed answers…

And the only place he knew to get answers was to find the person who discovered the tomb the swords were locked away in. He needed to find Shirley Valentine…

He ignored his soggy costume and stalked into the nearest shadow and soon worked his way to his desired location.

**********

A cellphone rang beside a hotel bed, alerting the current occupant of the room, who had just finished her long, well-deserved hot shower. She wrapped one of the hotel's free towels around her, hiding the hourglass-shape body she had underneath it, and quickly wrapped a towel around her wet, long platinum hair. She snatched up her cellphone and flipped it open and held it up to her ear.

"This better be important," she said with a heavily thick, highly educated British accent.

"I'm sorry, Ms. Valentine, but someone broke into the museum and went after your exhibit," said one of her many employees, recognizing it to be Arthur, who had been helping her with the exhibit since she brought her discovery to light.

"What?!" gasped the woman. "Do you know who? Why?"

"The local security was knocked out by…get this…robots! Apparently, these yanks have read too many of their comic books, but the cameras do have footage of some guy in weird armor messing with the tomb and opening it," replied Arthur.

"…Wait, he opened the tomb?" said the woman in disbelief.

"More like blasted the thing open. The wanker put some funny thing on it, and it looked like it short-circuited for a moment, then he placed explosives on it and it popped open for him," confirmed Arthur. "But you're in for a great surprise by what the footage took of what he took _out_ of the tomb!"

The woman bit her ruby-colored lower lip. "…Please tell me it was what I thought it was."

"You got it! The swords! The tomb had the swords in within it, along with a crystal statue of Siegfried!" answered Arthur excitedly.

The woman nearly dropped her cellphone, her eyes widening to disbelief before a flare of excitement lit her emerald-shaded eyes. "Keep everyone away from the exhibit, even if they say they're the police. I want a firsthand look at the footage and the statue!"

"Already working on it…The lieutenant in charge of the investigation isn't happy with me for keeping his men away from the scene," informed Arthur, then she heard him begin to whisper into his cell. "Shirley…you won't believe the messed up stuff the footage got. I mean, I wouldn't believe it if I wasn't sure this footage was genuine!"

"Just don't let the local authority take it away as evidence until I get a chance to look at it," said Shirley, who was now quickly trying to dry her long hair. "I _need_ to see them."

"I know. I'll keep the yanks busy until you arrive," proclaimed Arthur.

"Thanks, Arthur. I'll see to it you get something nice in your next paycheck," said Shirley gratefully.

"Throw in a nice evening dinner and we'll call it even," replied Arthur.

Shirley smirked slightly at her cellphone. "If that footage is what I hope it will reveal, then we'll have that dinner. Bye, you silly." She quickly hung up on him before he could make a witty reply, giggling as she could just picture his excited expression.

She dried the rest of herself off and got changed into normal clothes that consisted of a loose purple blouse with matching trousers and lavender high-heels. She threw on a black trench-coat and grabbed her purse, and then was about to head of the door when her cellphone ran once more. Grumbling, she picked it up and flipped it.

"Arthur, I know you must be excited, but if you don't…"

A deep, masculine voice with a strange accent and wise tone interrupted her. "You have unlocked a series of events, Mrs. Valentine. One that you cannot hope to understand."

Shirley was startled for a moment before she thought to reply. "I don't know how you got this number, sir. But you better explain yourself, now!"

"All in due time…what little there may be left of it for any of us," replied the man cryptically. "I will meet you at the museum and answer your questions, but for now believe me and listen well…Your life is now in great danger, as is everyone's." then the mysterious man hung up on her.

Shirley gaped at what she heard and tried in vain to understand what the mysterious caller meant. "…Crazy nutter. Probably just some jealous competitor wanting to get a few licks in because he couldn't find shit."

She rammed her cellphone back into her purse and marched straight to the elevators. As she felt the elevator descend down toward the lobby, she had the oddest sensation that she was being lowered to an inferno…

**********

Robin stuck to the shadows of the alleys and rooftops whenever there was enough darkness to cover them. A while back, he had chucked his T-Com in a garbage can, not wishing to allow anything to chance, as he knew Cyborg would undoubtedly use it to track his location. He made sure the path he took would keep his scent from leaving a trail for Beast Boy's nose to pick up, and whenever he ran atop the rooftops, he made sure to survey the skies for any hint of a certain redhead. With his new senses he found his night-vision had greatly improved, to the point that the night appeared as bright as day to him. This, thankfully, helped him spot any foreign flying objects with glowing green eyes should she fly nearby.

As for Raven…he left his bond with her wide open.

He found he now could tap into their inner bond as she would to him. Now he could feel exactly what she felt, almost sense her whereabouts wherever she moved to. Though, this in turn let her sense him and his location, but he wasn't worried in the slightest, if any of them, Raven would not betray him. How did he know this? Because she never told anyone else about their bond, and he sensed she would take it to the grave with her before letting anyone know she could locate him with it, and he could feel she kept to the opposite side of wherever he went, sensing her confusion and worry. He easily deduced she wanted to help him, but at the same time do what Cyborg wanted and still help Robin from his fate.

He had to find a way to repay her trust when he figured out how to fix this matter up…then deal with his traitorous friends and now ex-girlfriend, as she proved unto him their love wasn't as real as he thought. How could you stay attached to someone who was going to let their own loved one be locked away in a room for who knows how long? To never see them but know they are watching you, analyzing you…pitying you. His blood boiled all the more as he let himself think about what they almost did to him. They can say he was overreacting when it was over, they can say he wasn't acting like his 'old' self, but for some odd reason…he felt he now _was_ acting like himself. As if when Soul Edge merged with him, it acted as a key and unlocked a part of him that had been locked away for a long time. This new, bizarre body made him feel at home with himself and strong! He was amazed at how strong he felt now and was almost anxious to try out this strength, but for now he needed speed, and his new body gave him speed and agility unlike he had previously. He dashed over cars like they were nothing, leapt over fences like it were child's play, and with his talons on his hands and feet, he found he could climb up walls in mere moments, he even ran up the side of one with just his feet!

As he neared his distinction, he began wondering if he really wanted to find his answers and fix this. He thought to himself about all the other people who were given this chance to have this kind of power, why they kept it and why they used it. Why can't he? By a strike of fate, he was given the power and so far he wasn't seeing a downside to it.

He slid down the side of a building, using his talons to stay attached to it, as he scouted the current area. As he looked around he nearly lost his grip when he saw something with glowing orange eyes staring back at him from the window of the building he was hanging on. It took him a second to realize that the strange glowing eyed thing…was him. He blinked in wonder at his reflection, looking closer at the 'changes' that came over him while running his hand through his crown of platinum hair, and then down his deathly blue cheek.

"…What have I turned into?" shivered Robin, and then quickly looked for the closest roof.

Spotting one, he leapt from his position and landed gracefully on it. He then grabbed his black cape and ripped it off and began stripping the end of it which he used to make a makeshift eye-mask, hoping to deem the eerie affect his eyes now had, but when he placed it over his eyes it burst into flames. With a silent curse, he thought for a moment, then stripped another piece and made a mask that covered the lower part of his face, then he the rest of his ruined cape to make a hood and scarf. With his shining white hair, it'd be too easy for anyone looking for him to spot. The hood would also give him something to cover his glowing eyes if he needed to hide them. The scarf would hold his hood in place and he wanted to leave no traces for his _friends_ to find.

He finished tightening it around his shoulders, and then he proceeded onward.

After dashing over three more buildings, he came to the hotel the newspapers said Shirley Valentine was staying at. He was going to sneak in and see if he could locate her room…after hacking into the hotel's computer, when he spotted someone with hair like his strolling out of the front door of the hotel. Using his new enhanced vision, he quickly recognized the person he was looking for, if when he saw her picture on the news was correct. Just to be sure, he decided to follow her and see where she went. He watched her hail a taxi and got in it and drive off. It was a simple matter of following it, and was getting annoyed at how slow the vehicle was moving to wherever it was taken its passenger, as to him it was like watching a snail move across the sidewalk. Briefly glancing around the taxi cab, he realized everything looked as if it was moving in slow motion. He wondered if this was how Kid Flash and The Flash looked at the world and if so…how the hell they kept their patience to deal with it! Shrugging his annoyance, he continued tracking the cab until he finally noticed it was heading toward the museum.

He halted on one of the roofs that overlooked the museum, giving him a view of all the policemen and news reporters surrounding the place. It would be tricky getting into the place with so many people around, but he was trained by the best and it would only give him a challenge, and he loved a good challenge.

He was about to make it way down the building when he heard a scream for help nearby. Reacting as he always did to a cry like that, he turned to start heading toward the scream, but then he remembered that he needed answers from the archeologist, but his old instincts could not let that plea for help go uncalled. Groaning in irritation, he decided he could always sneak into the museum as soon as he helped out whoever was in trouble, and plus, it would give him a chance to try out his new abilities should he need to fight in the near future.

His estimations of the cry's location were proven correct when he found the person crying for help in a nearby alley. It was a middle-aged woman who had screamed and looked worse for wear at the look of her current state. Her clothes looked dirty and ripped in places, showing she'd be in a recent struggle, and her face was red with panic and tears. Around her was a gang of men who were laughing at her expense and circling her like predators would their prey. One of them had a piece of her ripped clothing in his hands and was waving it around like a mock flag. Robin's nose was greeted with a scent he wasn't familiar with, but something in him told him it wasn't good, especially for the roughed up woman. His eyes blazed darkly down at the men as he deduced their intentions and how he planned on making them regret it. As silent and stealthy as a shadow, he climbed down to the alley.

It was somewhat hard as his weird new footwear clanked a little too loudly for his tastes, but he compensated and the gang or woman didn't seem to hear him. While staying in the shadows, he observed the gang and notices something a bit odd about them. For one, they all were wearing red coats with red hoods with a one-eyed white skull painted on top of their hoods, which also completely covered their faces, making identification impossible. The rest of their attire simply consented of baggy, ragged pants and sneakers. He frowned when he saw there were five of them and each one of them was carrying a sub-machine gun, with addition weaponry strapped to their backs, which they were waving over their heads and howling to scare the woman more. He knew he never seen a bunch like this, but he knew one thing…they were going down.

"Hey, you! Let her go or…arh!"

As soon as he spoke to draw their attention, the weird thugs turned on him without a word and started firing their sub-machine guns at him. He hadn't expected their quick actions, seeing as they didn't move as slow as everything else was to his senses. They moved so fast, he never had a chance to dodge the volley of bullets that littered his torso with bloody holes. The thugs continued firing at him even after he fell to his knees and watched as his smoking, bloody body collapsed like a rag doll on the crimson stained ground.

"Oh god…" whimpered the woman, seeing the horrible murder.

The thugs quickly lost interest with their kill and returned their attention to the woman, resuming their near barbaric dance and waving their arms and guns over her, moving in closer to her. Tears began to pour once more down the woman's already redden face as she watched her assailants returned to tormenting her, knowing the fate they had in stored for her. She had hoped that the odd-looking and semi-familiar hero would save her from this horrible fate. That hope quickly died when they filled his body with large amounts of lead, and from the results, he was just some unlucky amateur. Now she was once again that the mercy of these thugs and there was no hope left to pray for…

Had the thugs or the woman been a bit more patient, they would have seen the bloody corpse begin to ripple with red and black, almost organic-looking energy. From under the hood, Robin's eyes snapped back open, burning with anger before groaning lowly in agony. He glared evilly at the thugs and slowly worked back onto his feet, staring down at his chest to see the bullet holes closing, and then the weird red and black energy rippled over his chest, fixing his ruined costume. The pain quickly disappeared but he found his strength had weakened and his vision was making everything look grey. Yet, he couldn't believe he survived a hail of bullets at point-blank range, let alone to heal so quickly as well as watch his costume repair itself.

Just what exactly had he become and what else could he do?

He pushed that thought aside when he saw the thugs started grabbing the woman. One of them had gotten a hold of her shirt and was ripping it off her. The sight of more skin drove the rest of the thugs more frantic and started grabbing her limbs to hold her down, letting the one that ripped her shirt continue his work.

Normally, Robin would just pull out a Birdarang, or one of his many useful devices to knock out his opponents, or at the very least draw their attention back to him, but his new instinct quickly told him that those wouldn't work. These thugs weren't normal and were quick enough to shoot him again if he tried to. The last barrage left him very weak, if he tried to draw their attention and they shot at him again, he had no doubt they'd kill him this time for sure. But the old Robin just couldn't let the woman be harmed by these men…they had to be stopped, and he was going to make them stop.

Seeing they all had their attention focused entirely on the woman, Robin leapt at the closest thug and slammed his foot in the center of his back. What he forgot until it was too late was that his strength wasn't normal anymore, so when his foot made contact with the thug's back, a loud bone-snapping sound echoed throughout the alley. Had he been his old self, he would have mourned and let his guard down at what he did, but his instincts and a cold, rational side of him told him to quickly pick up the body. Doing as his impulses told him to, he snatched up the body in time to use it as a meat-shield when the others fired their guns at him. He let the corpse take the full blunt of the barrage and charged to the next thug, slamming the corpse into him while grabbing the thug's head. He heard the punk's skull begin to crack as he applied pressure to it, and then jerked him close to use to block the oncoming bullets. With the first meat-shield, he tossed it at them and rushed them behind the flying body and leapt over it, faking them out as they quickly darted out of the body's way and taking aim at where they thought he would be. He came down on two of them with the newly dead body, slamming it down on over their heads and then cart-wheeling to the side to let the last one shoot his remaining comrades up.

"_**Not much of a team player, are you? Or do you simply not care what you shoot up?**_" said Robin with a deep, nearly demonic voice, thanking his mask and hood for hiding his startled expression.

The gangster just growled almost sounding like a wild beast before firing at him once more. This time Robin was ready and leapt for the wall of the alley, clinging there for a moment before pouncing down on top of the thug. He began beating in the man's head senselessly, filling himself overcome with some important need to do this. When the man remained limp under him, looking as dead as his fellow gangsters, Robin almost started feeling horrified at his actions, but then something even worse happened to the fallen Boy Wonder. From his body, a mass of red-blackish tendrils shot out and drilled themselves into the body, wrapping around it and squeezing it. To Robin's further shock, the body began to be absorbed by the tendrils and they began pulling back into him, pulling some of the unfinished body with them, until it touched Robin's body and absorbed even faster into him. As soon as his body was back to its normal state, Robin screamed in horror just before clutching his head in agony as a flood of information blazed inside his mind. He saw flashes of things he never saw before and events that he knew he never committed, namely one in particular. This one played like a movie scene in his head, revealing to him another unfortunate woman who came across him and shooting her legs, leaving her in torment as he ravaged her body until he had his fill, and then shooting the poor woman in the head, and as if that wasn't enough, he took the defiled body and started defiling it once more, laughing insanely until his comrades called him over to help with a new victim, ending with him eyeing the woman he just saved.

As if that wasn't enough, Robin could feel everything the man did and could recall how much he had enjoyed it. Soon, the memories gave way to others, letting him know the man was a part of a gang called "The Reapers" and some about their work. Apparently, they used to be a drug-dealing group that decided to move themselves up to full crooks and take over a place called Empire City like some of the big-time criminals in Gotham, thanks to some person named…Sara…no…Sasha, then the information moved to revealing more horrible news. This Sasha gave the Reapers some kind of toxin which altered and mutated them into the wild killers they are now…and were now spreading this toxin to captured 'recruits' from nearby locations, one of them being Jump City. It was then that he also realized…the man he just devoured…was infected with the toxin.

He suddenly felt his body burn and ripple as red and black organic tissue rippled over it. It quickly stopped as soon as it started, but in is calming wake, Robin found he no longer looked like himself, but rather, the man he absorbed into himself, everything of the thug, even his clothing was changed to match what he wore. Then the burning feeling came over him and his body rippled again, settling back into his original form and he fell to his knees, clutching his gut. Hastily, he yanked his mask down and from his mouth he vomited a red-brownish, slimy substance. Once he was done and his breathing settled back down, he wiped his mouth and put his mask back on, grimacing at the foul taste in his mouth.

He looked at what came out and was amazed to see it hissed and melted some of the concrete and disappear when it melted clean through.

"Hmm, guess my body can reject harmful substances…not to my liking, but I guess it's better out than in," grumbled Robin as he surmised the reason he expelled the stuff.

A soft whimpering behind him reminded him of the girl that was almost ravaged. He turned to her and was alarmed to see her staring at him in fear and trying to make herself look as small as she could against the brick wall of the alley. Frowning under his mask, he held up his arms and kneeled down to sit on the balls of his feet, hoping this will make him look less frightening.

"Hey, hey. It's okay, I'm not going to hurt you," said Robin softly, if a bit rugged.

The girl blinked rapidly, still trying to make herself disappear or blend into the wall. "Y-You…you-you turned into one of them!"

'_Ah, that's why she's scared. Can't say I'd blame her…after what she saw, I'd be just as nervous as her,'_ thought Robin, nodding his head to her. He looked up at her, careful to keep his haunting eyes covered by the brim of his hood. "Sorry about that. First time that's ever happened to me, I'm new to having superpowers."

The girl upon seeing he wasn't making any signs of coming at her slowly began to relax some. "…S-So you're a new hero? Wait, are you one of the Teen Titans?"

He lowered his eyes just in time to hide the flare that flashed over his glowing eyes. "I was…but certain circumstance happened and I had to leave."

"Oh…I-I guess the way you took out those guys isn't quite the way the Titans do things, huh?" she tried to joke.

Robin took that moment to observe his handiwork and he felt a cold, grim feeling hit the pit of his stomach as he looked at the remaining bodies. He felt guilt, at least that still hadn't changed, but a cold logic in the back of his mind reminded him from what he learned of the thug he absorbed, was that these men no longer chose to be men. They took the toxin willingly and allowed themselves to become rabid dogs, and he put them down like the dogs they were.

He must have been quiet too long because the girl spoke back up. "…T-Thank you for doing what you did, I know it wasn't by choice…but thank you all the same for s-saving me."

He waved her gratitude off. "What I did was monstrous, Mrs.…?"

"Hale…Tira Hale…" replied the girl.

Images suddenly flashed through Robin's mind of a girl with teal hair and gleaming amethyst orbs with a look of insanity pooling in them. She wore an alluring green outfit that looked more liked rags considering how they wrapped around her body, with feathered fringes around her neck, with purple markings striping over her bare skin and one small stripe across her nose. Behind her was an odd weapon that looked like a huge bladed ring.

Then his mind returned to the present and to the girl before him. It was then that he actually looked at her and saw this girl held the same physical traits as the girl in his vision.

"_**Tira…**_" growled a voice from Robin that wasn't his own, as more information of her ran through his mind.

He slowly stood up to his full height and smirked at the girl, then slowly offering her a hand. _**"So you've reincarnated…what a surprise to see you again."**_

The girl stared at him in wonder as a haziness crossed over her eyes. "…That voice…I've heard it in my dreams…No, they said it was all in my head! No!" Tira clutched at her head, whimpering some. "They said it wasn't real!"

Robin felt his eyebrow rise in question before he felt something tap his mind to help explain what she might be talking about. _**"Hmm, I see this world has caused your once wicked mind much damage. They've suppressed your true nature with their psychological tactics!" **_Robin then sensed a great darkness fill him and he slammed his fist into the bricked wall, leaving a large portion of it missing now. _**"Those that did this to you will suffer! No servant of mine will be treated that way, especially not my…Angel of Death."**_ He slowly walked over to her and kneeled down and stroked her cheek oddly affectionately. _**"My little dancing death, I will take care of you as you took care of me in my time of need…"**_

Tira looked on the verge of tears as a wave of desperate hope flashed over her fragile eyes. "…You really are real…the master in my dreams."

"_**I've always been real, my Tira. I've been asleep for a long time…and I left you alone for so long," **_replied Robin…no, the sword! That was who was talking. Soul Edge was talking to the girl through him, but Robin could feel it wasn't forcing him, it just reacted to seeing the girl…and oddly, he could sense relief from the sword and a bizarre sense of…care from the evil sword.

'_Yes, even I can feel something other than utter hatred, young one,'_ said a deep, masculine voice in Robin's head.

'_You can still talk? I thought after you did whatever the hell you did to me, you were completely gone!'_ yelled Robin.

Soul Edge chuckled deeply. _'When you are ready, then I will truly merge with you, for now, we are in a symbiotic stage until you are truly ready. Until that time, I will slowly become part of your psyche and your soul, as I was originally forged to do.'_

'_You mentioned that before…what do you mean, forged for? How can you know I'm the one you were meant for?' _questioned Robin.

'_Because, boy, I can see into souls! It's as simple as that…and when you were under my blade, there was a darkness in your soul that awoke me, one that matched my own and freed me from that accursed state I was placed in,'_ replied Soul Edge. _'You come from a long line of great men, Richard, yes I know your name, I know everything about you, but that is irrelevant right now. For now, I will tell you that your soul carries a power and a darkness that you inherited from beings known only as…Overlords.'_

'_Overlords…'_ whispered Robin to himself and he looked down at the new symbol on his chest, now understanding the significance of it. _'But…that can't be. I'm just a normal person. My family was just aerobatics, there wasn't anything that indicated our ancestors were anything like these things you're talking about!'_

'_There is too much to tell you right now, boy. Truths that are hidden in your soul, but in time I will show you the truth about your bloodline and your destiny. For now…let me talk to my servant, she needs me,' _said Soul Edge, ignoring Robin and directing his attention back on the girl, who had at some point wrapped herself around Robin.

"…I've been alone, so very alone!" whimpered the girl, rubbing her crying face against his chest. "They said I was imagining you, said I was letting my mind make up a companion to keep my broken mind company. But I was right! The dreams, oh the dreams of you and I were real! I can't believe it! I'm so happy!"

Soul Edge patted Tira's back, a trait he never would have done in the past, but this was a new time and he was merging with a human that was slowly turning him into something that could feel more than just care and anger for someone else, and it would explain why he was so 'happy' himself to have his favorite servant return to him.

"_**They are weak minded fools, Tira. They know nothing of who you truly are! But I am here now, and you will serve us as you did me in the ancient times,"**_ said Soul Edge, rubbing her back.

"Us?" uttered the crying girl.

"_**Yes, I too have changed…and I am becoming one with this body that you see before you. I will soon be one with this boy as he with me, and we will become a force that nothing in this world can stand against…but I still need people like you, my Tira, who even through the cycle of life and death you have remained loyal to me,"**_ said Soul Edge, helping the girl back up and drying her tears. _**"I will never leave you alone again, and neither shall the boy once we are one."**_

"Oh, thank you!" exclaimed Tira, wrapping her arms around the dark Boy Wonder. "I will do all I can to prove I'm worthy!"

"_**I have no doubts…but now you must do as the boy tells you. I must rest. I have used too much energy to talk…and I fear our talks will be shorter until the final merging," **_informed Soul Edge. _**"But fear not, I am the boy as he is me, as such, when you speak to him, you speak to me."**_

Tira nodded. "Yes…my master!"

Robin could feel Soul Edge was satisfied and returned to wherever he resided inside him. _'Protect her, Richard…she is important to us once her soul fully awakens, she will be the perfect servant to help carry out your will.'_

'_But I don't want a servant! I don't want any of this!'_ shouted Robin.

'_Deluded boy, this time and world has filled your head with such childish ideals. You were never meant for this life, you were meant for more! Soon…soon you will understand,'_ replied Soul Edge before closing itself off from Robin.

"Great…just great," muttered Robin to himself, finding he could talk normally once again. He glanced at the girl and saw she no longer was acting scared or trembling.

She now looked the exact opposite. She seemed to be beaming with an almost childish excitement and moved her body with more grace, as if ready to do anything if asked.

Robin rubbed the back of his neck, sighing. "Things just keep getting weirder and weirder…" Hands suddenly wrapped around his shoulders and delicate fingers began finding pressure points along them and working on them. "Hey, what!?" He looked behind him to see a smiling Tira giving him a massage. "W-What are you doing?"

"Giving master a massage! Master looks so tense, and I wanted to ease that tension," explained a beaming Tira.

"Er, I don't need that," said Robin lowly, trying to get her to let go of him.

It seemed to give her the wrong signal as she started pressing herself against his back. His body instantly started heating up when he felt two warm globes press firmly against his back. She leaned over enough to whisper into where she believed his ear was under his hood. "Does master need another method to ease his tension?"

"N-No!" yelped Robin, yanking himself away from the girl, who burst out in giggles. "Okay, whatever you think is going on, you are NOT my servant."

"Of course, I'm not your servant, silly!" replied Tira, laughing when she saw the baffled look across his eye. "My master is inside you!"

"…Oh, boy," muttered Robin, pinching the bridge of his nose. "This is turning out to be the longest night of my life."

"Isn't it?!" beamed Tira, oddly breaking out into a childish dance around him.

Robin just stared at her and groaned loudly as a headache was beginning to make itself known. "Now I know why Raven gets these…we must act like idiots in her eyes."

Tira stopped her dance and looked at him curiously. "Raven? You mean that Titan girl with the blue cloak and pale skin?"

"Yeah, her," replied Robin, moving to lean against the wall. "I wish she was here…she'd help me make sense of all this."

Tira practically bounced right on him. "You want me to find her!? Would that make master happy?"

Robin just held her as she practically wormed herself around him. "Er, n-no, I don't think now is a good time. I need to get into the museum and talk to someone."

"The museum? Oh, I can get you in there, master!" replied Tira happily.

"…Wait, you can? How?" wondered Robin.

Tira unlatched herself from him and scampered around until she found a small purse on the ground. She eagerly hopped back over to him and pulled out an ID badge and showed it to him. "I work there! Well, now I work for you, but before that I was working for a lady named Shirley Valentine. A bit stuffy and way too serious, but the job was decent."

"You talk like you're giving up on your old life," remarked Robin.

"Because I'm with master now! That old life was meaningless without master, and Tira will be his loyal servant as she always was!" said Tira cheerfully.

"Tira…I don't know what's going on here. I'm trying to fix what was done to me, if I can then your master will just be a sword again. You can't give up on the life you've got now," said Robin, hoping to get some sense in this increasingly crazy girl. "What would your family think?"

He was a bit taken back when her eyes swiftly changed from beaming and cheerful to hard and cold. "My life is shit! Since I was born my daddy was abusive, did things to me that no man should to a girl. Then my dreams are filled with flying ravens and a master in blue armor…I knew those were memories of a life I once existed, but then mommy, thinking my mind shattered after what daddy did to me, did far worse. She put me in a cold, lonely place. I was kept in a small room with no windows and no one to talk to. They said it was for my own good, but they were lying!" she balled up her fists and snarled angrily. "They played with me! They humored me when I talked about my dreams, of my master! They laughed behind my back when they thought I wasn't listening and said I was making it all up for attention! They told my mommy I was a lost cause, I'd never fit in society." She walked right up to Robin and started beating her small hands on his chest. "They said I was nothing! All I knew was a lie! I had no one to turn to! My own mother would just stare at me as if I was some deceased thing and walk away. No one cared for me! But I knew someone did, I knew master was out there somewhere, waiting for me…but I had to get out of that place. I had to make them think I could fit in their world."

She slowly stopped beating his chest, and soon began crying. "I lied about having made up master. I had to work on letting them think I was actually making it all up…I did everything to get them to think I was okay. And soon, I started believing they might have been right…that maybe I had imagined it all, but a part of me knew it was still true!"

She rested her face on his chest and Robin had the urge to cradle her into his arms, which he did with little reluctance, feeling so heartbroken over this girl's tragic life.

"They bought it, they let me go as soon as I played the way they wanted me to," continued Tira. "I got out but I knew, oh I knew I had to keep acting to fool everyone! I had to let them think I was normal, even mommy bought it and wanted to be with me! But she was a lying bitch, too. She didn't want anything to do with me, either! She sent me to private schools, hardly caring to spend any time with me as she played with her men! She just kept sending me away to places until I finished school and got a job as an archeologist, it was when I graduated that I got the job offer to work for Mrs. Valentine…and I knew, and somehow I felt that if I worked for her, I'd find you, Master!" Her happy expression came back in full force, hugging herself now against him. "Now, I'm not alone anymore, master is all I need."

"Tira…" whispered Robin, feeling so overwhelmed with her conviction to him, or rather to a sword of evil.

It was sickly ironic in a way for her to find solace with a demonic weapon of untold evil…but to her it was an anchor to hold onto in a cruel world that only it could provide. Maybe she indeed was insane as this girl reminded him of Harley Quinn and her total devotion to The Joker. What would that make him if he let this girl follow him around in the same manner?

Then again…

The sword seemed to be protective of her and even showed signs of concern to a level for her. Did that make it wrong that even a sword like Soul Edge could care for one person? If it could, then all wasn't lost for him, there could be hope for him in his state, and as he thought about it more, he needed an ally more than ever right now. This girl could be useful if he gave her a try…

So much was happening to him so fast he couldn't decide what the best course was. All he did know was that he had to talk to Shirley Valentine and get more information about Soul Edge and if there might be a way of fixing his state. He probably could still sneak into the museum and find Shirley, but Tira was an employee of hers and could probably lead him straight to her faster and could get him inside much easier. The only problem was if he let her act like his servant, she would believe he accepted her as one and it would lead to things he was scared to think about.

Yet, he could not find it in himself to push this girl away, especially not after the ordeals she's been threw to find her master, Soul Edge. Maybe it was guilt or it was a sense of protectiveness from Soul Edge, but he decided on what course to take.

He gently pulled Tira off him and locked his glowing eyes on hers. "I will not lie, I do not know what lays ahead for me and what it could lead you into, but I need all the help I can get. This is your one chance to back out now and continue the safe life you have. Think about it for just a moment, do you really want to give your life to be a servant to me for the rest of your life?"

Tira locked her beaming gaze on his haunting eyes. "I've had years to give up and just become a dull, normal person. I could have just lost myself to the masses and let eternity push me around in its endless sea…" She slowly kneeled down before Robin, placing her hands on his stomach, petting him almost. "But there wasn't anything else that made me more fulfilled than serving my master, and now you hold my master and now _you_ are my master. I've been alone for too long and I cannot bear to lose you, not after finally finding you! I'll go to the Abyss if that's where you go, master, and go willingly…just to be with you again."

Robin remained quiet for nearly a minute as he digested her words. When he spoke, he placed his hands on her shoulders and patted them. "Things seem to be going to the Abyss for me, but if I can help it, I'll keep things from getting to that point." He released her and jerked his thumb toward the alley exit. "Come on, Tira, let's go talk to you ex-boss!"

"Yes, master!" cheered Tira, jumping for joy like a ten-year-old.

She hopped after him and nearly knocked him over when she jumped onto his back, giggling more childishly.

Robin found himself chuckling and wrapped his arms under her to better support her. "Heh, first a demonic sword is absorbed into my body, I'm somehow related to something called Overlords, and now I have a hyperactive servant. This is got to be my weirdest night!"

"The night is still young, master!" beamed Tira, patting the top of his head.

Robin chuckled and nodded. "True…let's see what else it has in stored for us."

Tira cheered once more as they made their way secretly to the museum, both unaware of a set of amused eyes watching them from above.

"Hmm, he looks very familiar…I wonder," mused the person who had been watching from above, more precisely floating above them. "This could be really interesting…"

The watching person zoomed over their heads toward the museum and waited on top of the roof for Robin and his newly acquired servant to arrive.

*******

In the center of the park, metallic-like spikes drilled up from the earth and opened to expose a brownish-glowing tunnel. From the tunnel flipped out five brown, gremlin-looking creatures and landed with surprising grace on their three-toed feet and scouted the area with gleeful grins. Giblet, the appointed leader of the squad, showed more intelligence than the rest by keep them close and pulled them to the closest bush for coverage. He knocked each one on the head to silence them so he could take a moment to examine their surroundings and sniff.

"Hmm, Master is close…me smell dark magic!" informed Giblet to his fellow Minions when he caught the scent of magic in the air.

They started howling in excitement and he once more smacked them over the head with his club. "Quiet, numbnuts! We need to keep out of sight till we find the master!"

They nodded in understanding while rubbing the two large bumps now forming on their heads.

Giblet snarled back and forth as he scouted for any possible threat, and cursing that his old teammates were no longer around. He smacked one of his fellow Minions just for the heck of it to make him feel better, and then set his sights where his nose first picked up the sight of dark magic. "This way and don't be seen!"

"We not Greens! We Browns!" one of the Browns snapped at him, quickly earning him a vicious smack on the head from Giblet's club.

"Do as I say! Gnarl wants new master found first! Play time come soon after!" reprimanded Giblet, slamming his club on the ground warningly.

They nodded quickly and fell behind him as he snorted and marched in the direction of the magic source, keeping in mind to stay in the shadows of the plants until they came to the streets and quickly disappeared into the darkness of the city. He let his nose tell him where he needed to be and grinned the stronger it got. It reminded him of the scent of their latent master, but this one was much more stronger! Stronger than any previous master they ever served and it made Giblet all the more excited to find him, so he could once more take his place as the Overlord's Blacksmith and create weapons of carnage to smash, hack, and slash. He had to suppress his urge to break something as he let his twisted little mind remember the creations of destruction for his past masters, wondering what inspiring ideas their new master would give him. Of course, he would have to wait until the master found the Red Minions before he could activate the Forge in their new Tower, but that was just a matter of time now.

His gleeful thoughts were interrupted when they came upon an alley littered with five dead bodies. The Browns walked over the bodies without regard; one even stomped on one while crackling madly before leaping off it. Giblet was about to just ignore the corpses all together until his glowing eyes spotted something metallic and shiny! Eagerly, he dropped his club and picked up one of the corpses sub-machine guns and looked it over excitedly.

Although his intelligence was nowhere near Gnarl's, but he was still smarter than the average Brown and he was able to study a weapon from merely looking at it and soon understand its function. He wasn't appointed the Blacksmith for nothing! He eyed the gun and fumbled it around in his clawed fingers, feeling the weight and design shape of the gun. One Brown saw him handling the gun and looked for one of his own. The Brown snatched one off the ground, holding it over his head proudly.

"This mine!" it exclaimed, then started bashing it around.

Giblet rolled his eyes and continued studying his new weapon. His interest in it immediately doubled when the other Brown found the trigger and found it could pull back. Gleefully, it held the handle and pulled on the finger and screamed girlishly when it when flying flat on its back from the ricochet of the gun, but it kept its finger on the trigger and sprayed the sky above it with bullets. Giblet watched in fascination at the spectacle and admired the damage the gun laid to the walls when a random bullet punched a hole into it. His delight ended when the Brown's gun emptied itself out. The now ragged Brown glared at its gun and pulled the trigger once more, only hearing a metallic click, then started screaming at the thing to do its trick again.

Giblet hummed to himself and examined his own gun, finding the clip and pulling it out and looking at small, shiny things resting neatly in the clip. "Gnarl will be interested in these…" It quickly slammed the clip back into the gun, then rummaged through the corpses for more clips, having guessing the importance of the small projectiles, and stuffed as many as his jerkin could hold.

He started to go for one of the other guns, seeing one that looked longer than the one he held, but was stopped when he smelled a familiar scent…one he hadn't for years.

"Jester?" uttered Giblet, looking around for the annoying Brown they thought they lost.

From a nearby shadow, a Brown with a familiar jester's hat stepped out, but Giblet was surprised to see that he looked completely different now. For one, he had white tattoo markings all over his body and where he used to have a right eye was now a shiny, white crystal that glowed white as his original one glowed yellow, and his face looked face more fierce and bony than he remembered. His once yellow-brown skin now had a slight grayish hint to it, almost like Gnarl's. Around his neck he wore a fur collar with a furry loincloth, and pierced in his left ear were two golden hoops. He bared his pointy teeth as he smiled manically at his fellow Brown.

"Quaver is the name now, Giblet!" cheered the gray Jester, flipping a jester wand which now had a small skull mounted on the top. "Simply Jester won't do at all! And Quaver is much more dramatic for my art!"

Giblet ran his clawed hands over his face, groaning in annoyance. It seemed even after the missing years, he was still the same, old jester. "Where you been all this time?! Gnarl has been wondering where your corpse be so he can skin it and make you a rug!"

He was startled when Quaver narrowed his good eye evilly and grinned back at Giblet madly. "I've been a busy little Brown who has been on a noble quest! Yes, a quest of great importance, the location of the Master's heir!"

Giblet shrugged. "Heir died! Lost at sea like we thought you!"

Quaver placed his wand down like a cane and rested his claws on the worn skull. "Then it gladdens me to prove you wrong. I save heir from death." He waved his small gray claw at his surroundings. "Cast a spell, I did. Sent young master and myself here away from nasty wraith."

"Heir alive?! New master we sense must be him!" exclaimed Giblet happily.

"Indeed, Giblet. But I had lost young master when I arrived to this strange world. Been looking high and low for him, and now, I tracked him here as you have!" informed Quaver. "And saw a sight I never thought to see! Soul Edge has descended and became one with him!"

All the Browns, including Giblet, paused and for once in their existence were silent and slack-jawed.

Quaver hobbled over to the end of the alley, twirling his wand in one hand, poking the end of it at the corpses he walked by. "This be his handiwork. Saw with my own eye the mayhem he unleashed!" He continued on his way out of the alley, heading toward the museum where bore witness to the epic moment. "He headed back to where he met Soul Edge. We must get to him quickly before anything happens, Giblet!"

Giblet, too lost in shock to question Quaver's sudden authority over his squad, quickly followed the jester to the where they would at last find their rightful master.

***********

A/N: Before anyone bothers to ask me: No, Shirley is not Ivy, although, she is related to everyone's favorite sexy fighter from the game. How? I'll let you ponder but it isn't that hard to guess. Anyways, someone offered some additional candidates for the harem and as I got thinking about them, they could work very well, but I'll let you, my readers, pick, but please, just ONE vote per chapter for one candidate, thank you. Also, once more, when you give a vote; be sure to leave the reason why you voted for the character, unless you already voted for one, then that rule won't imply.

Another thing is that I'd like to hear more from all of you about the chapter instead of how much you like it. I thank those who reviewed but just saying good job is like sending your sick grandma a "Get Well" card, then having someone else deliver it to them for you.

Understand what I mean?

Moving on, if you leave a flame or a demanding review, I'll feed them to my Minions, they love it but I don't want them to get FAT! Fat Minions are a pain to roll through the corridors…the other Minions just keep getting flattened by them. As for my grammar, well, it's hard to go over and read, then re-read, then re-read again, especially after working for so long on it, people tend to just miss a few things, but my thanks goes out to the one person who reviewed and was kind enough to alert me to one of the mistakes I didn't intend to do. I'll try to be more aware but it would be easier for me if I had a beta-reader…one I can rely on and I can get in touch at any time if needed.

List of possible candidate: (If there are no votes for a candidate with the next four chapters, they will be removed.)

**Blackfire (3) *****

**Raven (14) ****************

**Argent (2) ****

**Kitten (1) ***

**Jinx (5) *******

**Terra (0)**

New Candidates:

**Wonder Woman (0)**

**Harley Quinn (0)**

**Poison Ivy (0)**

**Shirley Valentine (0)**

**Tira (0)**


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer:** I do not own _Teen Titans_ or _Overlord_, _Soul Calibur IV_, _Fable_, _Legacy of Kain_, _The_ _Legend of Dragoon_, _Prototype, Infamous, _plus more to come. They are the rightful property of Cartoon Network/DC Comics, Namco, Triumph Studios, Lionhead Studios, Silicon Knight/Crystal Dynamics, and Sony Computer Entertainment, etc. Any claim I have is merely the plot and making nothing from this…sadly.

**A/N:** Once more thank you all for your time in reading and casting in your votes, and taking the time to explain your reason for your choice, it has helped add some wonderful ideas to make this story better.

(Gnarl: Heh...hehehe....Ooo, hehehe!

Lord Darkmoon: *sighs* GNARL!

Gnarl: *startled* AH! Y-Yes, master?

Lord Darkmoon: ...stop oogling Tira...if you value your life.

Gnarl: Forgive me, Master...my weakness has always been a fine lady when she's wafting about!

Tira: NO ONE BUT MASTER ADMIRES MY ASS!

Grubby: Wow, she's loud! I think ears are bleeding!

Moldy: Must be that time of month.

Lord Darkmoon: Oh, for the love of all that is darkness, now you pissed her off...

Grubby/Moldy: Huh?

Tira glares at them with shining red eyes, pulling out her ring-blade: Time to skin some piggys....

All the minions: _WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!_

Lord Darkmoon: Let's just continue with the story...Shall we?)

************

"Normal Speaking"

'_Normal Thinking'_

"_Soul Calibur Speaking"_

"_**Demonic/Soul Edge Speaking"**_

***********

**Servants to the Master**

Flying high over Jump City, Raven flew aimlessly about, trying to pull her chaotic thoughts together. She still could not believe that things had gotten this out of hand, and so quickly as they did! The moment Robin fled from the tower at a remarkable speed, Cyborg took command and ordered her, Starfire, and Beast Boy to go track him down while he contacted the other Titans to come help out. She knew Cyborg was just worried over Robin...but why did he not trust Robin when he seemed to be agreeable? They've all always trusted one another since they first formed the Teen Titans, but that trust was just shattered over a complete misunderstanding. She planned to confront Cyborg later about it, but first she needed to decide what she should do about Robin. She could feel him, as he could feel her now, in the city and sensed him heading back toward the museum, but why?

Knowing him, he was looking for answers and wanted to return to where he was transformed for clues. She came close a few times to calling her teammates and telling them she knew where he was, but then she'd have to explain how she knew...especially as she was a good distance away from Robin's location. A simple lie of deduction would have worked, but Cyborg somehow learned to tell when she lied, like a sibling could tell when his younger sibling wasn't telling the truth. It irked her greatly that he could, as she prided herself on having complete control of her body and her mind...but he could still tell.

With that option out, the best she could do was make it look as if she was searching desperately for the Boy Wonder, at least until she knew the right course to take. Right now, she felt that it was best to let everyone calm down, as too much was happening and no one it seemed was thinking rationally, save for herself. Also, she trusted Robin to find an answer to this bizarre situation and return to them safe and sound. If not, then she would find a way herself!

She owed him that much, after all...

He saved her from her own doubts and fears of her father, Trigon the Terrible. He believed in her when she could not, and even after she kept such a dark secret from everyone, he was her light in that darkness she lost herself in when she allowed herself to become Trigon's portal to earth. He found her in the ruined remains of the earth where what remained of her took shelter from the nightmare. And now, darkness has fallen over Robin and he was forced to flee from his very teammates...from her.

Her thoughts were interrupted when her T-Com buzzed. "Raven, here..."

"Any luck?" came Cyborg's tired voice.

"Nothing...When Robin wants to hide, no one can find him until he wants to be found," stated Raven coldly.

"Whoa, Raven! Don't sound like that toward me...I freaked, okay? I mean, I've never seen such hostility from Robin when he woke up," said Cyborg defensively. "His eyes were glowing, Raven! He looks like some kind of a demon now! What else was I supposed to do?"

Raven narrowed her eyes at her T-Com, already suppressing her emotion, Hate, back into the farthest part of her mind. "Maybe just kept talking to him would have been enough. He was confused, Cyborg. Anyone would be after he was exposed to such a enormous amount of negative energy..." Her voice then died down to near a whisper as her eyes widened in realization. "Too much energy, in fact..."

"Wait, what?" wondered Cyborg, barely hearing her last words.

"...Nothing," snapped Raven, quickly cutting off her T-Com and floated in the night sky in deep thought. "...There was so much energy that moment that surge blew through the museum and into Robin...It should have killed him. He's just human...but he took it all in and only passed out...how could he have handled it all?"

Something in the back of her mind was telling her there was more going on than they all believed when Robin absorbed that energy. There was something she was missing and she needed to find the answer, like she should have as soon she realized what Robin was doing.

"You always were the clear thinker in the group, Robin," murmured Raven to herself. "Even with all this, you still are looking out for us..." She made up her mind what she needed to do and darted toward the museum, hoping to find Robin in time with answers before the others figured out where he might go. "...I won't leave you alone in the darkness, Robin! This I promise!"

************

Just before Robin and his new 'servant' got too close to the museum, he stopped Tira and started removing his make-shift scarf and hood. "Here, wear this over yourself. If anyone sees your torn shirt, it'll raise suspension and we can't afford dealing with the police right now."

Tira squealed and took the offered scarf and expanded it to wrap around her neck and shoulders, effectively hiding the torn areas of her shirt. "Master is so generous!" She hugged herself and took a long sniff of the scarf. "Mmm, master smells good!"

His left eyebrow started twitching wildly. "...R-Right, anyways." His expression returned to seriousness as he continued. "Tira, you need to remember to act as you used to around people. It won't be good if you keep acting like...uh, like you are now around me. Especially, if my plan is going to work."

"Umm, okay, master," replied Tira, instantly reverted to acting like a calm, rational woman.

_'Definitely, Bi-polar...but I guess she can control it, so that makes things easier,'_ thought Robin, thankfully his mask still hid his nervous smile. "Alright, now the plan is that you'll go inside, report in and find your boss. I'll make my way up onto to roof and wait for you there. I'll keep an eye on you from there, once you've found her, just look up, and I'll make my way inside. From there, I'll find you and we'll go to Mrs. Valentine and get some answers."

"Uh, master?" murmured Tira, holding up and waving a hand like a school-girl.

"....Er, yes?" replied Robin, already feeling this plan going down the drain.

"Why all this secretive crap, master? Why can't we just bust in there, take lives, and demand my ex-boss to spill everything she knows before we spill her guts on the floor?" asked Tira with a matter-of-fact tone.

Robin stood there for a moment and blinked at her. When rational thinking returned to his brain, he blinked once more at her and cleared his throat. "...We'll talk about that line of thought later, Tira. Anyways, we need to do this as quietly as we can, because if we cause a ruckus...my 'teammates' the Titans will come here and try capturing me." He felt his entire being shiver as he thought of being locked up in the Sealing room. That brought along a long pause from him as he tried to fight off feelings of fear he was growing for that room.

"M-Master?" said Tira worriedly. "Are you...scared?"

"Yes, Tira...I'm very scared of what they'll do to me if they take me back to the tower. They have a room that we used to seal a teammate once...to protect her from her own demonic father, but at the cost of that protection is the price of total isolation." replied Robin honestly, feeling she needed to understand his worry. "That means any and all connections with the world outside...it's a true prison cell when you think about it. I...I cannot imagine being locked away with no contact from the outside...just a singular room where I'll be powerless...utterly helpless..."

His body began to shake once more and he nearly fell to this knees, but he managed to keep his legs from bending and hold himself until the shakes stopped. In place of the fear he had, a dark anger spread throughout him and his eyes burned furiously.

"I will find my answers..." vowed Robin, turning to address Tira. "Go, Tira...We need to find Shirley Valentine and we must do it now!"

"Yes...my master," whispered Tira in admiration, feeling thrilled as she sensed his power grow around him, radiating like a dark warrior...no lord; a dark lord from the very Abyss itself.

She quickly hurried away from him, heading to the main entrance. As she neared the building, she pulled out her ID badge she used when working to the policeman that was guarding the entrance. It was very easy to get by him, as she was originally called in by Arthur to help fix the ruined display of Siegfried's Tomb. Once he confirmed she was who she was, he let her inside, and then never gave her a second look. She giggled manically once she was away from the policeman and began her search for her ex-boss.

Outside, Robin had quietly made his way to the museum and climbed its concrete walls, then with great care made his way silently to one of the roof windows. There, he looked around for Tira, who he quickly spotted heading to the back of the museum. He followed her to the next window and peered down to continue watching her. He hoped beyond hope that everything went quietly and swiftly. The sooner he could find Shirley, the sooner he could piece together some of the puzzle that was now him. He tried to mentally talk to Soul Edge while he watched Tira, but the ancient sword closed itself off to him for whatever reason it deemed for, making any chance of figuring out this problem all the more difficult. He did however receive bits and pieces of memory about Tira, though, informing him that she was once an assassin that was trained from birth to be the ultimate killer for a lost organization calling themselves, "Birds of Passage". But she ended up killing the organization's leader after he had gone insane.

He also learned that at one time, she did try to live a normal life, a quiet one...but her upbringing and nature overpowered her and soon she returned to the killings, and that was when she met Soul Edge, the sword now residing inside him, and pledged her absolute loyalty to him...because she felt he was so much like her. Now, here he was witnessing the reincarnation of that girl firmly keeping to her vow and following the one she called master...

That lead him to wondering what he was going to do with her once he fixed whatever Soul Edge did to him. Would she just continue being a servant to the sword, or would she maybe see sense and return to her normal life. As soon as he thought that last part, he already could feel she would pick the former. She was a true servant; loyal, obedient, and faithful. He had no doubt that she would do anything he told her to do...and that brought on an odd sense of fulfillment to him. She was completely loyal to him, even if it was really the sword she called master, she was his servant now...and if he kept the sword and let it continue changing him...what power would be granted to him?

"No...I...I cannot let this control me!" growled Robin, shaking his head fiercely, dropping to his knees and clutching at his chest as a sudden pulse throbbed in it. "What...what is this?"

_'Don't fight it, Richard...this is what you were meant to have,'_ spoke Soul Edge, opening itself up to him. _'This power is the dormant potential of your heritage, young Overlord._ _You have past one of many tests to come...and now your blood is awakening more of the power you truly have...'_

_'W-What are you talking about...this is you! This isn't mine! I'm just a human...a normal human!'_ panicked Robin.

_'Human? Normal? Maybe human, but you were never normal, Richard...'_ retorted the evil sword. _'Had you stayed in your home realm, you would have had this power already awoken by the age of six, such is the potency of your bloodline. This world, or something that happened when you first came here, somehow locked away your power. We will find the reason and punish those that hampered your heritage, but for now, know this...all I have done, all I am doing...is unlocking what you already have deep inside your soul! Now embrace your calling!'_

The throbbing increased and Robin cringed in pain as more energy flowed through him, his eyes blazed wildly as his hands were surrounded by bluish-lightning. When the energy stopped, Robin collapsed and gasped for air, but soon the pain vanished, leaving behind a feeling of strength and vigor. Robin stared down at his hands, which were still sparking with bluish-lightning. "This power...it...it feels wonderful!"

He clinched his fists and soon broke out in a dark chuckle. "This is...my power...only mine!"

"Mmm, and what attractive power it is," a semi-familiar, alluring voice said from above.

Robin immediately snapped back to reality and jerked his head up, and nearly cursed. Floating above him was none other than Starfire's sister...Blackfire.

"You, what are you doing here on earth, Blackfire!" demanded Robin.

The alien brunette stared at him with confusion, before her fists glowed as she smirked evilly. "Ah, so my guess was right. That spiky hair...cocky attitude..." She floated down and stopped channeling energy into her fists. "Wow...you look so much hotter now. How'd you come about this change of appearance? Not that I'm complaining, but you look way better now than in that tacky colored costume."

"Answer my question, Blackfire...wait, tacky colored costume!" growled Robin, his eyes blazing angrily.

Blackfire burst out laughing arrogantly. "It's too easy to get you upset. Anyway, as to why I'm here..." Her fists charged once more with purple energy. "...to take away the one person Starfire holds so preciously to her heart...you!"

She expected him to immediately challenge her and ready himself, she expected him to declare she wouldn't take him away from Starfire...What she didn't expect was for him to grunt and look away from her and stare back down inside the museum.

"Wha...Hey! Don't ignore me like that!" yelled Blackfire, stomping her foot somewhat childishly in the air. "I'm here to flatten you into space dust, and all you do is grunt!? Oh, am I not a threat to you like those _other _villains, is that it?"

Robin sighed and looked at her lazily. "No, it's just that your plan is gonna be a waste of time."

Blackfire stared at him in confusion. "What's that supposed to mean? What, she dumped you?" She waited for him to deny it, but once more was met with a grunt. "Wait...you dumped her? Oh X'Hal! Starfire got dumped by the boy of her dreams!" She started to laugh once more but that too soon died when the dark Boy Wonder didn't respond to her jab. "You really changed, Robin. You're acting nothing like a shining fool you always act like."

Ever so slowly, he locked his eyes on hers and they burned with anger. "_**Lots of things have changed, Blackfire..."**_

She did not expect the force of power from those strange eyes, nor did she expect to see such familiar pain swimming in them. Not that she cared for his pain, he was just a lowly earthling...but that power! It made her insides shake with fear and she could almost feel his anger against her skin, making it break out in goose-bumps. Yet her pride would not allow her to back away from him and she stood firm and proud.

"Oh yeah? From the looks of you, I imagine it wasn't anything fun, hehehe," teased Blackfire. "So what is the deal, huh? Before I kill you, I'd like to understand what the Qas'nward is going on with you."

Robin narrowed his eyes at the villainous sister of his ex-girlfriend, pondering if he should humor her, or deal with her...He quickly reprimanded himself for even considering doing that to Blackfire. She may be a galactic criminal, a tyrannical Empress that almost had Starfire to marry a disgusting alien...but she was still a person, and he had no right to kill her. Whatever overtook him in the alley with those thugs that made him kill them would not rule him, he vowed he'd control that impulse and not let it control his actions to kill again. So he chose to humor Blackfire...but if she attacked him as she planned, well, that would be poor choice on her part...

"They betrayed me..." admitted Robin. "My teammates....save for one...betrayed me and planned to lock me away because of this." He looked down at himself, then clinched his fists in anger. "They were scared of me, of this power I was exposed to...and now they wish to seal me up and throw away the keys!" His body began to glow with a dark aura as his anger slowly rose more. "My heart was torn asunder when my own girl, the one I cared for chased me into the sea, shooting her Starbolts at me! And now, my _friends_ are chasing me down as I speak, rather than doing the smart thing and figure out why this happened..." He returned to looking down the window, quickly finding Tira making her way past the ruined exhibit, fighting his urge to do something violent. "...All because I became something different."

Any amusement the alien brunette had about this awkward situation had quickly vanished. In its place was disbelief. Her own sister, the goodie-too-shoe, bubble-headed, loved by all Starfire, turned on her own boyfriend. "I don't believe that...how could my sister...act, well, act like a bitch?"

"Simple!" replied Robin heatedly, jumping high up into the air, higher than she knew a human should be able to over her, and without a single sound, grabbed her by the back of the neck, pulling her down to the roof, but didn't apply any pressure...yet. "Because I'm not the knight in shining armor to her anymore. I doubt even if I fix this that she'll see me the same way, because I doubt very much I'd come near her ever again."

Blackfire, shocked that he could move so fast and had gotten behind her. What's more, the anger she could feel radiating off him as he talked about her sister...slowly she smirked. "So...you hate her now, right?"

"I'd say I don't, but presently, I'm not feeling any positive emotions toward most of my teammates," replied Robin, letting go of her and returning to the window, smiling as he saw Tira look up at him and point at a door. "Good girl..."

He started making his way over to another window and started to open it when a hand stopped his progress.

"Whoa, there, Dark Wonder...So what do you plan on doing if you run into my sister?" asked Blackfire, with an almost girlish excitement in her voice, as if was about to hear what she was getting for her birthday.

"If she helps Cyborg lock me away..." he trailed off as his anger burned hotly inside his heart. "...I'll deal with her."

Suddenly, he felt a pair of arms around his neck and hugging him tightly. "This is too good to be true!" squealed Blackfire in his ear. "Finally! Someone else who hates that dumb sister of mine like I do!"

Robin pulled her off him and glared at her. "Look, I don't care right now! I need to get some answers from someone in here, and if you keep holding me up...you'll find out how much of a different person I am from who you knew."

Now he was left bewildered because the alien brunette smiled at him and invaded his personal space once more, leaning her body against his. "Oh, I won't hold you up, Robin...but I wanna stick around and see what you'll do to my sister!" She drew circles on his chest and gazed at him in a way that left him uncomfortable for a villainous to give him.

Robin narrowed his eyes at her cautiously. "Whatever, just don't get in my way.

Blackfire smiled too sweetly. "I'm too curious now about this new you...hmm, and this power you've got! I wanna know how you got it...it be a shame for you to just get rid of it, too..."

Robin remained quiet for a moment, looking down to see Tira slipping behind one of the exhibits. She stayed there and remained alert for him and others, smiling happily as she did. He found himself smiling under his mask, and then it struck him. If he did get rid of the sword...what would it do then? Would it use Tira as it once did to meet its own ends, using her as a tool of needless death and destruction? She was scarred from the harshness of life already, could he allow the sword, even if it felt for her, use her like that? No! He could not allow it...even if it meant keeping the sword to protect her and everyone from its evil influence, and why not? It was unlocking something inside him that even he wasn't aware of. Everything it was doing to him was what he had hidden from him in his soul...or was it a lie? No, somehow he just knew it wasn't a lie and that the sword was indeed unlocking parts of his soul that were taken from him. The cold, rational part of his mind cooled the rest of his thinking and let him see things clearer than he once did. This power was given to him and it was his alone...why should he give it all up for people that wanted to put him away like a dangerous criminal, especially after all he's done for them and this city?

He shook his head, not fully aware that his old self, the Boy Wonder of Gotham was slowly fading away. In his place was growing a cold, dark being and one filled with rage at the injustice done to him by those closest to him...save for _her_.

"I'm not going to get rid of this power," stated Robin darkly. "I don't believe I should, not after seeing how my friends reacted." He pushed Blackfire off him and carefully opened the window without setting off the alarm. "...I just want to know what's really going on." He then crawled into the window and silently ran on the ceiling upside down and down the wall, and then made his way to Tira.

Blackfire, once more amazed by this new version of Robin, couldn't help the feeling of excitement that fill her about him. "This is getting really interesting...Oh, I can't wait to see more!" Making up her mind, she zoomed through the window and floated down to join the two. "Hey, don't forget about me so soon!"

"Who is she, master? Is she a threat, can I kill her?" asked Tira, looking insanely eager at Robin.

"Master?" uttered Blackfire before smirking more at Robin. "Oh, you bad boy...I didn't know you liked to play _that_ way."

Robin glared at her. "I didn't plan on making her a servant, it just happened, okay? And why are you following me?"

"Remember? I thought I'd tag along and see what happens. This is way more interesting than getting back at my sister," admitted Blackfire, smiling at him with amusement.

Robin rolled his eyes. "Whatever...Tira."

"Yes, my master!" cheered Tira, before clamping her hands over her mouth. "Oops, sorry, master. I got excited!"

Robin groaned and covered his eyes for a moment as he shook his head. "Just...tell me you found Shirley."

"I did!" replied Tira, forgetting once more about being silent. "She's in the staff lounge with Arthur, the two seemed to be having an excited discussion when I peeked in on them. I think I overheard something, too...something about a security recording. I'm not sure as I wanted to let you know to come down here!" She immediately glomped him. "Did Tira do good, master?"

Robin sighed and pushed her off him. "Yes, Tira...you did well. Now, lead me..."

"Ahem?" coughed Blackfire, giving him a look of annoyance.

"...I mean, us to her," reprimanded Robin, wondering how things could get any weirder on him tonight.

************

In the lounge, Arthur was setting up his laptop. "I was able to slip this disc out of the security room before that rude lieutenant forced me outta there, duckie!"

"Good work, Arthur, but please hurry! I want to see what that recording contains!" said Shirley eagerly. She wanted badly to see the footage as the police wouldn't let her near her own exhibit until their forensic team was done.

"Just another sec," assured Arthur, having finished and pulled out the disc and inserted it into his laptop. "Here we go..." He moved out of the way to give her a clear view of the screen. "Watch closely, Shirley, this stuff will blow your mind away!"

She gazed intently at the screen as he clicked play, and soon her eyes widen as she witnessed who it was that had blown up her tomb. "That's Slade!"

"Slade? Wait, ain't he that wacked out yank who tried to take over this city at some point?" said Arthur, staring at the one-eyed villain.

"Yes, but that's just a tip of the things this man has committed," replied Shirley, watching as he studied the tomb before he placed the device on it. She almost jumped when she saw the field of energy zap around the tomb, then placed the explosives, finally, she got to see what she wanted for so long to see...

"The swords! I was right! They buried the swords in the tomb!" exclaimed Shirley, leaning in closer to the screen.

"I'm afraid it gets weird from this point, love," warned Arthur as the footage revealed Robin appearing and confronting the villain.

He fell silent to let her watch on as the Titan and the villain seemed to be in a heated discussion, then they battled. Shirley was too amazed that even after all the years that had gone by, the two swords still held up like they were brand new, even more by the faint glowing the crystal-like sword was emitting whenever it struck the Titan. "Amazing...those swords really do have powers like in the legend!"

"Oh, you have no idea, love," murmured Arthur, then pointed at the screen. "That other sword the Cyclops is wielding is about to do something rather nasty to that poor kid."

"What?" uttered Shirley, but Arthur just placed a finger on his lips and pointed at the screen again.

She watched as the other sword began to glow in the center, and then Slade seemed to go berserk and start attacking the Titan madly, and soon had him pinned after unleashing some odd power with the crystal-like sword. Just when she thought he was actually going to kill the Titan, the sword changed and soon the footage began to shake, and then she barely saw the footage showing the sword enter into the Titan, and finally, the footage cut off.

"I'm afraid that's it, Shirley," apologized Arthur. "They said some kinda strange energy surge blew out most of the electrical equipment...but did you see what happened to that Titan?!"

"It...It looked like it was merging into him!" gasped Shirley, still staring at the now blank footage screen. "This proves so many theories I had! But...but where's the Titan that the sword disappeared into?"

"That's where things get crazier!" replied Arthur. "The police don't know, but one of them Titans just called them and told them to be on the lookout for the one they called Robin, I imagine that' s the kid we just witnessed get stabbed by the sword. I'm guessing something happened and he's loose right now in the city, meaning that whatever happened...that sword that went into him was in fact..."

"...Soul Edge," a highly intellectual voice said from the door.

Shirley jerked around to the door. Standing there before her was a tall, handsome, dark-skinned man. He was completely bald and wore dark glasses and a black business suit, a tanned vest underneath it and cream colored dress-shirt, and polished black shoes. He was massive in size, but not an inch of him looked flabby, in complete opposite, this man seemed to appear to be all thick with muscles, yet he held himself with a grace unusual for a man his size.

He bowed his head slightly to them. "Evening, Mrs. Valentine, Mr. Drake...I did not mean to alarm you."

"Do I know you?" asked Shirley staring at the massive man.

"Never in person, but I do know you professionally," replied the large man, entering the lounge. "Permit me to introduce myself, my name is...Zesalamel."

Arthur nearly snorted. "Just Zesalamel? No last name?"

The huge man merely tipped his dark glasses down to reveal stern, intelligent, mismatched eyes. Instead of the mixture of green, or blue , or sometimes brown that people would have. This man's eye color was bizarre and somewhat unnerving. His left eye looked as if it was pure gold for an iris and pupil. The other eye had an iris of cold-grey with a normal pupil. Those odd eyes almost seemed to push against Arthur with power and made him very wary of this man.

"Yes, Just Zesalamel..." replied the massive man. "That is sufficient enough, but that is an unimportant matter. What matters now are the swords from that tomb."

"I'm sorry, but what business is it of yours and why should you care?" grumbled Arthur.

The man smiled. "The swords are everyone's business....and they are of great importance to me."

"Wait, are you the guy that called me earlier?" proclaimed Shirley, now glaring at him.

Zesalamel simply nodded. "I am indeed, and what I said to you was indeed the truth, we are all in grave danger."

"That is the second time you've mentioned we're all in danger. Exactly, from what are we in danger of?" demanded Shirley with a cold tone.

Zesalamel walked over to the laptop on the table, brushing Arthur aside with ease but gently, and tapped on the footage rewind and paused it right on the scene before the footage blew out, showing the sword going inside the Titan. He pointed a finger right at the Titan. "That is what we are in danger of, Mrs. Valentine. That union between Soul Edge and the boy."

"Explain to us, how is this 'union' as you put it, gonna screw us over?" said Arthur bluntly.

Zesalamel readjusted his sunglasses and tapped the screen. "Soul Edge is a weapon of pure destruction and calamity, and has the ability to possess people and use them to fulfill its evil desire to consume souls to make itself stronger. Once it has done so, it will bring about the entire annihilation of every living being on this planet."

"...Wait, you cannot be serious?" said Shirley with disbelief in her voice. "This is some kind of flight into the fantasy."

"If only," replied Zesalamel sharply. "But reality is a cruel and unforgiving thing, and you Mrs. Valentine had reawakened a long sleeping...nightmare."

"What a load of crock!" shouted Arthur. "This sounds like some kind of hoax to me. Right, Shirley...Shirley?"

The archeologist did not hear her coworker, her mind was too focused on the screen, the sword, and now the Titan. "What will the sword do to the Titan?"

"Simple, as it has done to everyone its ever come into contact with, corrupt him and use him as a tool to accomplish its mission," replied Zesalamel bluntly. "As it did to Siegfried once upon a time ago."

"...My god, so it really is true," whispered Shirley, her mind buzzing from all the theories she had of the legend...and the dangers they held.

"Wait? How could you know about Siegfried...unless!" Arthur yanked Zesalamel's arm away from his laptop. "You're either one of our competitors or your working for them! Either way, you need to leave, now! This was our discovery, and I won't let you take any credit of it!"

Zesalamel readjusted his coat sleeve and brushed it. "I am not after any claim on your discovery, what I'm after is to halt Soul Edge before it can reign untold havoc once more on the world. Now we need...!" He suddenly turned around to face the door. "...It seems my search was made easy for me."

"What the hell are you going on now about?" grunted Arthur in irritation.

"This is no time, Mr. Drake, Mrs. Valentine...You need to get out of here, now!" stated Zesalamel.

"What's the problem? We're safe here, the police are watching this entire place," said Shirley.

"No offense to the police force of Jump City...but they rarely look up or guard the roofs of any building they're watching," came a raspy, youngish voice from the door.

Stepping inside, the Archeologists gasped in fright when Robin, followed by Blackfire and Tira came inside. Tira quickly shut the door and locked it, then turned to grin like a school-girl that just got away with something at her ex-boss.

"Tira? What on earth are you doing here...and with them?" demanded Shirley.

"What my soul was meant for, boss-lady. To serve my master, so consider this my resignation," stated Tira, leaning back against the door.

Shirley frowned at the girl. She had heard her assistant had spent time in a mental institution, having made it a point to always have some background history of anyone that worked for her, and some of the things she read from her report had almost made her fire the girl as soon as she had hired her, but she had shown so much promise and seemed to have regain her sanity; what a shame that it was proven wrong. Not to mention she was intrigued by the girl's delusions, having read she once believed to be the slave of a demonic knight that wielded a powerful sword, a knight that reminded her all too much of the one Siegfried fought...

"Tira, whatever this person has told you is a lie. He's a Titan, a possessed one, he'll use you for his own gains!" warned Shirley, hoping the poor girl would come to reason.

"You know nothing, boss-lady," replied Tira, her expression switching to a fierce and angry one. "Soul Edge has returned and I will serve him as I did ages ago."

"...You know about the sword?" gasped Shirley.

"She's following me of her own free-will, Mrs. Valentine," stated Robin, who had been glaring at Zesalamel the whole time. "You...somehow I know you."

Zesalamel remained silent as he too observed him with a stern look.

"Go ahead and play silent, I've already overheard enough from you about Soul Edge," said Robin impassively, turning his intimating gaze onto Shirley. "Sorry about this intrusion, but I needed answers about the sword, and for once something went right for me tonight."

Shirley could feel the power in his eyes and it made her throat run dry and literally push her back slowly against the table, nearly turning it over. "W-What are you planning on doing?"

Robin shrugged. "I haven't decided yet...The information I overheard in here matched what Soul Edge has been telling me."

Said sword was still filling him with information about itself and its old habit of plotting total world damnation, and a bit about the strange man staring at him coldly. He now knew this was no normal man and was in truth a kind of immortal, how Soul Edge did not know exactly as it did not deem it fit to gain anymore knowledge on the man, only that he had tried using it and its power for his own use. What struck him funny, though, was the nagging feeling he met this man before...from some time long ago. When he had followed Tira to this room, he had just planned on questioning Shirley to fill in the blanks, but this unexpected man had generously did it for him, and now he knew more than he had when he first came here, but he felt there was more he needed to hear. He had hoped to overhear more, but his excitement to get closer had alerted the man to his presence, now he had to rely on this man giving it freely...and if he didn't, well, Soul Edge had provided him a means of extracting information in a new kind of way.

"Since we're on the topic of Soul Edge...what can you tell me about its counterpart. The other sword that Slade was using when I fought him," asked Robin, but his tone sounded more as if he had given a command.

"...The spirit sword, Soul Calibur was meant for only one thing...Soul Edge's destruction, but this proved to be false," replied Zesalamel. "The two swords cannot truly destroy the other. They are intertwined by fate to always battle each other until the end of time..."

"So, basically neither can win or lose to each other...hmm, interesting," murmured Robin, rubbing his chin in thought.

Zesalamel had looked as if he was about to make some kind of move, but a purple-glowing hand near his face stopped him.

"Ah, ah, ah! I wouldn't try anything if I were you," stated Blackfire, who had been watching him as he seemed the largest threat to her. "You seem to know a lot about these swords, so you will tell us everything you know or I will make you wish you regret living."

The massive man let out a dry chuckle. "My dear, you have no idea."

Arthur had reached his breaking point at that moment. "Okay, what the fuck is going on here?! Why are you here and why aren't you sucking souls as this guy has pointed out."

"Because that's what Soul Edge does, not me," stated Robin darkly, narrowing his glare at the man. "Soul Edge is doing something different inside me...and that's all I will say."

"Boy, you must not allow the sword to control you. It is pure evil and it will drive you to the edge of madness," warned Zesalamel.

Robin shrugged uncaringly. "Whatever, I need to find more answers and you will provide them to me...or I will show you how I can 'pull' information out of someone."

"This is insane! You're a Titan, a hero! Can't you see that the sword is already corrupting your mind!" shouted Shirley.

"There is more going on here than I can tell you, Mrs. Valentine...besides, the moment I saw this man." Robin pointed at Zesalamel. "I started wanting to hurt things, why I don't know. But I do know...I really don't like this man and if he wants to keep his health, he will tell me what I want to know."

"Heh, why not just cut to the chase and make him, Robin? Or are you still too much of a _hero_ to do something that dirty?" teased Blackfire, smirking that him in challenge.

The room was suddenly filled with a malevolent power emitting from Robin. _**"Don't test me right now, Blackfire! I have stated that I'm in a foul mood and I'm willing to hurt someone, even you! So keep your mouth shut!"**_

Blackfire was too taken by fright that moment and her focus on her starbolt faded. Immediately as it faded out, Zesalamel quickly jerked a wide hand up and snatched the brunette's wrist, and with a grace unbefitting a man of his size, he spun on his heel and tossed her into the far wall, nearly sending her crashing through it. Robin was upon him in a flash, rearing back a fist to punch the man out, but Zesalamel had extended a hand out behind him without looking back and caught the his fist.

"You'll need to be quicker than that, Robin," stated Zesalamel calmly, then squeezed his hand around Robin's fist.

Robin grunted in pain as the hand crushed around his, but he wouldn't allow that to stop him. Reacting quickly, he swung his trapped arm in a clock-wise pattern, and then used his free hand to palm- strike Zesalamel in the shoulder, forcing the muscles to contract and release his grip. Once his hand was free, he ducked down and shot out his foot, slamming his heel into the massive man's knee. The blow knocked Zesalamel down onto one knee and grunting in slight pain. Robin pushed off the ground and was about to strike him with his other foot when his newfound senses alerted him to something wrong. Feeling he needed to heed the inner warning, he quickly pushed away from Zesalamel when the air around his hand seem to distort and a white-golden scythe suddenly appeared in that hand, closing around the pole of the weapon and brought its curved blade at the Dark Wonder. Had Robin not moved back when he did, he was sure that scythe would have sliced him neatly in half at the waist.

"Whatever power Soul Edge has given you will not be enough, Robin," cautioned Zesalamel, taking hold of the scythe in both hands. "For I have lived many life-times and I have gained more experience and knowledge in the art of combat than you can dream of..."

Robin recomposed himself and rolled his right shoulder, then his neck. "You might be better than me, but I've had my fair share of people like you who have underestimated me, and they always lost. You will be no different."

Zesalamel stared at him impassively. "We shall see..." He then lowered the curved blade while rising the blunt end up, as he posed his body to attack.

Robin reached for his Bo Staff but his hand grabbed nothing. He growled lowly, guessing his teammates disarmed him when he was unconscious and helpless, if that was the case, he would have to rely on his own close-combat skills and sharp wit to deal with this immortal, but then again, he wasn't normal anymore. His speed had increased tremendously and his strength had also been boosted up. When he had earlier attacked Zesalamel, he had held back to keep from injuring him too much, but he was quite strong and skilled as he reacted and sensed his attacks. Now he planned to hold back to allow his opponent to believe he was just boasting and lead him under a false sense of superiority, then he would take him down...

As he was figuring out the quickest method to take the immortal down, Zesalamel took the offensive and swung his scythe up at him with ease with just one arm. Robin ducked under the bow but only to find it was a feint and was kicked in the face by a large heel. He crashed to the ground and was stunned for a moment, but instinctive reaction made him roll to the side to avoid being impaled by the curved blade, which sliced cleanly through the floor. He continued to roll back onto his feet and crutched low to keep himself as small a target as he could. Zesalamel eyed him curiously as he easily pulled his weapon out of the ground and held it by his side like a staff.

"You are holding back, young one," stated Zesalamel with mild distaste.

Robin shrugged and stared at him silently.

Grimacing at him, the immortal spun on his left heel as he extended out that leg to swiftly bring his blade down on Robin, aiming low and angled to cleave his head off. Robin kicked himself off from the ground and dug his talons into the ceiling, which thankfully was strong enough to hold his weight and allow him to hang there as he swung his legs up to miss the scythe's edge from taking them off. As he swung, he planted the talons on his boots into the ceiling and let go with his hands, swinging backwards and grabbed the immortal's head with both hands. Continuing with his momentum, he unlatched his feet from the ceiling and allowed his weight to let him fall as he slammed Zesalamel's head into the floor, then dove for his exposed back and landed a few quick punches on his lower spine. He turned around and readied a fist to slam into the back of the immortal's head when his heighten hearing caught the sound of a gun pistol being cocked back before the door was kicked open.

"Stop! Police!" shouted a firm voice upon entering the room.

Robin cursed and froze where he was. He did not have to stay frozen for long as a purple starbolt struck the owner of the gun and voice down.

"I think we've overstayed our welcome, Robin!" stated Blackfire, charging more starbolts around her fists.

"Fine, I've got what I needed for now," agreed Robin, already hearing more policemen rushing toward them. "Can you make us an escape route?" he pointed at the ceiling.

"Too easy," smirked Blackfire as her eyes glowed brightly as she looked up and shot her eyebeams, rotating her eyes to make a big circle.

The section fell crashing down and Robin quickly grabbed Tira. "We're leaving!"

She swung her long legs around his waist and snuggled herself against him. "Yes, master!"

Robin groaned and jumped up through the hole, followed by Blackfire. He stopped and gazed back down at Zesalamel, who was just recovering. "...This isn't over between you and I."

Zesalamel glared back at the dark Titan. "No, it indeed is not over between us."

They shared a heated glare at each other for a moment, and then Robin disappeared from the hole.

"What in God's good name was that all about....and what you did for that matter!" exploded Arthur when logical thinking returned to him after witnessing that fight.

"...That my dear boy was the beginning of the nightmare this world is about to endure once more," replied Zesalamel solemnly as he picked himself up from the ground and dusted himself off. He let go of his weapon and it vanished from sight. "I must stop him before he can become stronger."

"That boy...will he become like Siegfried had?" mourned Shirley, who that entire time had been holding onto Arthur.

"No, nothing like Siegfried had...this boy will be far worse than anything this world has ever seen," Zesalamel said with a grim face. The Immortal pulled out a hand-held device and hit a serious of buttons. "...But I had made a few precautionary fail-safes for just this."

************

Cyborg suddenly slammed his foot on the brakes, turning the steering wheel to make the T-Car swerve to a halt.

"Dude! what the heck was that all about?!" shrieked a panicked Beast Boy, clutching his pounding heart to keep it from doing into his throat.

"Robin's at the museum!" replied Cyborg, glaring coldly at the road. "Dammit! I should have known he'd head back there!"

"How do you know he's back at the museum?" asked Beast Boy curiously.

"Just clicked in my head," said Cyborg, rubbing his bald head some, then shook it slightly. "It makes senses for him to go back there. He'll be looking for answers, and being the detective he claims to be, will be looking for any clues to help him understand what happened to him."

"Then put the paddle on the metal! We gotta get to Robin before anything bad happens!" said Beast Boy.

"Right!" agreed Cyborg, shifting gears and slamming his foot on the gas paddle. "Call the others! Tell them to head to the museum."

"Gotcha!" said Beast Boy as he pulled out his T-Com.

************

Robin ran down the hallway, with Tira piggyback on him, looking for an exit of any kind. Blackfire floated idly beside him, looking bored. "Why don't we just take out the human's guarding this building and make a run for it?"

"Because!" hissed Robin, sliding to a halt at the corner of the hallway, peeking to make sure it was clear. "we start attacking the police, the Titan's will show up for sure! I want to avoid them until I can figure out how to explain all this!"

Blackfire laughed at that. "Oh! I can just imagine that conversation!" She clasped her hands to her side of her face and smiled at him with fake cheeriness. "Everything is fine, guys! I've just got a demonic sword that wants to end all life on this world."

Robin glared at her while Tira was crackling hysterically , then wiped the tears from her eyes. "Me, too!"

Robin grumbled and was very tempted to drop her right then. If he wasn't in a hurry to escape and keep her safe, he would have. He secured his hold on the girl and darted off down the hall and saw a window at the end of the hall.

"Finally!" breathed Robin in relief as he made his way to the window. But just as he neared it, a spotlight blazed by it and he halted, cursing under his breath. He waited until the spotlight moved on and took a quick glance out the window before retreating back, cursing louder now. "They've got the place surrounded too tightly! Looks like we'll have to make our way to roof. Blackfire, think you can carry the two of us to the closest rooftop?"

"And why should I waste my strength doing that? I can just blast my way out of here and leave you two to deal with the authorities," smirked Blackfire with a superior smile.

Robin glanced out the window once more and narrowed his glowing eyes caught the sight of a familiar white car. "Because if you did...then you'll be taken out before you can get too far."

"What?" uttered Blackfire, looking confused now.

"Trust me, Blackfire, if you just humor me on this, we'll out get out of here with ease," said Robin.

"I only trust myself," growled Blackfire.

"Then you'll never go any further than you already have," stated Robin darkly. "But for this one time, just do it and don't make things difficult."

Blackfire was beside herself. The nerve of him to order her like he was her better, a lowly earthling! She should put him in his place for ordering her to do as he said. She could easily blast him, or use the servant as leverage against him. All it would take once one good concentrated blast...

"If you're thinking of turning on me, now wouldn't be a good time," snapped Robin suddenly, glaring at her as the room seemed to filled with a dreaded feeling. "I may not be acting like my old self, but I still know how to read people and anticipate their actions." He moved himself so his body was blocking Tira from her. "And you really don't want to get on my bad side right now..."

She semi-gulped to herself as she recalled the bizarre incident in the alley. Her mind vividly played the scene when he literally absorbed that scum...what if he decided to do that to her? The very thought made a chill run down her spine.

"F-Fine," acknowledged Blackfire, nodding nervously.

"Good, now let's head up to the roof and get outta here," said Robin, then ran past the shaken ex-princess.

Tira shuck her tongue out at the brunette they past her and laughed madly.

"Ooo, when we get out of here, I'm gonna fry that face of yours!" threatened Blackfire as she zoomed after them.

Robin chuckled loudly as he ran down the hallway. Very soon, he spotted the stairs and the three dashed up them as fast as they could. Coming to the door leading to the roof, Robin kicked it open and darted out into the night air. Blackfire was about to grab the two of them and haul them away, but then they all froze when they spotted a robed figure waiting for them.

"Raven?" gasped Robin, staring in alarm.

"Robin...what's going on...why is Blackfire here? And, uh, who is that on your back?" asked Raven, staring questionably at the villain and loony girl.

"It's a long story...but I can't tell you right now," replied Robin slowly backing away from her.

Seeing him retreat, she reached out a hand to him as she stepped forward. "Wait! Don't run! I'm not here to capture you."

"I can't, Raven. I saw Cyborg driving here," said Robin, looking around to make sure the other Titans weren't sneaking up on them.

"Damn, I thought we'd have some time to talk about what's going on," groaned Raven.

"Look, Goth girl. We're in a hurry, and as much as I'd love to pummel my little sister, I don't wanna have to deal with all of you Titans and this planet's police force," said Blackfire, charging up her starbolts.

_**"Don't fight her!"**_ ordered Robin evilly.

Blackfire twitched nervously but conceded and stopped charging her starbolts. Raven was both scared and in awe that Robin had just told Blackfire, a universal tyrant to stand down. It all brought on more questions that she needed him to answer, but she knew if the others found Robin, he would make his escape and she would have a hard time explaining why she didn't stop him. But they had to talk and figure all this out.

Raven lowered her head, hiding her face completely in the darkness of her hood and stood aside. "Go...before they find you up here."

Robin was too shocked to do anything but nod. He signaled with a nod to Blackfire to move and as they passed Raven, she leaned in and looked as if to punch him. Tira, seeing the move whipped out with a leg and kicked the empath across the face with her heel.

"Sneaky!" snarled Tira.

"Raven!" cried Robin, dropping Tira and leaned down to where Raven fell.

Tira landed painfully, cursing loudly. "Hey!"

He ignored her and gently touched Raven. "...Why?"

Raven groaned and rubbed her face. "Am I bruised?"

Robin pulled her hood back, not seeing the instant blush that emitted from her face as he was too focused on the bluish-purple mark appearing across the right sight of her face. "...Yeah, a really nasty one."

"Good," moaned Raven. "That'll make it believable for the others when they find me. Sorry, I startled you but I had to make the wound be real, or else the others won't believe me that you got away from me..."

"Raven, you didn't..." he was stopped when she pushed him away.

"We...we gotta talk, get all this straightened out. But you need to go before the others get here," cautioned Raven. "...Meet me in Terra's Cave. Since Terra returned to normal, nobody goes back there anymore. You'll be safe there."

"Don't trust her, Robin!" snapped Blackfire. "She's just leading you into a trap!"

Robin slowly stood up and walked over to Tira and picked her back up, who let him, and placed her on his back once more. "Two days, Raven. Two days and I'll meet you in Terra's Cave...I need time to let things cool down."

Raven nodded silently and laid back down, too pretend she was unconscious when the others found her. "Just be careful..." then closed her eyes.

Had she kept them opened, she would have seem him glance over his shoulder and stared at her lying body with a mixture of feelings. He had to literally force his body to move away from the lying empath and move to the edge of the roof. "Blackfire...take us away."

Blackfire scoffed at him, but obliged, and grabbed him and Tira and started to carry them off the museum roof. She hadn't gotten two feet away when she came face to face with a familiar face with green glowing eyes.

"What are you doing with Robin?" demanded Starfire, rising her glowing fists threateningly.

Not one to miss a chance to taunt her redheaded sister, Blackfire hugged Robin and Tira closely to her. "Oh, I'm just here to collect what you threw away. Unlike you, dear sister, I'm not one to let a good thing leave me."

Starfire snarled and looked ready to attack. "Release him!"

"Bad idea," replied Robin, looking away from her as it hurt too much to bear seeing her face. "If she let go now, we'd fall to our deaths."

"I've seen you fall from high places, Robin. And always you have made it down safely," stated Starfire.

"That was before your guys took all my gear...At the moment, Blackfire has completely control of my fate and this girl," lied Robin. He knew he could survive the fall, thanks to his new body, and was pretty confident that he could land safely for Tira...but he wanted Starfire to believe otherwise.

Blackfire easily understood his intent and shook them both tauntingly. "Yeah, Star...you don't want me to accidentally drop them, do you?"

"I can catch him before he hits the ground," said Starfire confidentially.

"Maybe just him, but what about the girl?" cooed Blackfire. "I can just toss them both in opposite directions and then fight you before you can catch them...do you really want that on your conscious?"

Starfire gritted her teeth in frustration. If Raven was here, they both could safely get the two away from her sister and deal with her, but on her own, it was too much of a gamble to put their lives on the line. But she could not allow Blackfire to get away with Robin or the hostage they somehow acquired. Her choice was decided for her when a beam of sonic energy struck Blackfire from below. The unexpected attack caught Blackfire along her left hip, knocking her for a loop and loosening her grip on Robin and Tira and letting them fall to the ground. Starfire nearly forgot to react and dove down to save the two, but to her further shock, just as she was about to grip Robin, he glared at her and kicked her hand away from him. She watched in utter astonishment as he rolled in the air to get close enough to Tira to grab her and then flip so his feet were aimed at the fast approaching ground. Now to the amazement of everyone, Robin landed gracefully on the concrete pavement, but when he touched down, his impact left a small crevice and a miniature shockwave to ripple around him, kicking up the now loosened concrete to fly up and smash into a few police vehicles and nearly hitting a few of the police force themselves.

He up-righted himself from within the small crater he made and landed his burning glare on the one responsible for the attack. "That was a really cheap shot...even from you, Cy."

Cyborg stalked over from behind the policemen, charging his Sonic Cannon for another attack. "No choice, and it seemed that it wasn't really a problem for you to deal with, anyway."

Robin grunted. "Whatever, I don't have time to deal with you, Cyborg."

Cyborg aimed his weapon at him. "Too bad. You're coming back with me, Robin. Now drop your hostage and come quietly."

"Hostage?" uttered Tira. "I'm no hostage! I'm master's loyal servant!"

This caught the metallic Titan off guard. "Huh?"

Robin was about to use that moment to make his move, but then his sharpened sight caught the flicker of lights crossing over Cyborg's cybernetic eye. The next moment, Cyborg fired a warning shot right next to Robin.

"Don't even think of moving," stated Cyborg warningly, almost sounding more machine than human. "She won't stop me from getting you back to the tower."

_'What the heck just happened just then?' _thought Robin. '_That wasn't Cyborg just now...'_

"Master...?" murmured Tira worriedly.

"Don't worry, Tira...I'll get us out of here somehow," assured Robin, trying to believe in his own words.

"You, get the girl away from Robin and detain her. She's in leagued with him," ordered Cyborg, pointing at one of the police officers closest to him.

"Uh, okay..." uttered the officer, not looking at all sure that was a wise idea.

"I said move!" growled Cyborg.

The officer nearly yelped and started moving toward Robin and Tira. He then came to a halt when a bullet caught him in the leg and he fell in annoy.

"What the?" uttered Cyborg before he was littered by a spray of bullets.

"For the master!" an impish, high sounding voice squealed from somewhere.

The next thing that happened was a small group of brownish-creatures come swarming out from under a police vehicle. Most of them were swinging wooden clubs around wildly at whoever got close to them, but two were staying back. One that looked like a freaky jester while the other looked basically like the others, but this one had a sub-machine gun and was firing it wildly at Cyborg and the police.

Cyborg took aim at the freaky little creature and fired a blast at it. The creature yelped and leapt from where it stood, letting it hit and explode the police vehicle they had appeared from under. The explosion knocked the jester-like one off its feet, hearing it curse colorfully before picking itself up and wobbling off to find a new safe spot. The one with the gun just waved its gun at Cyborg and the other creatures swarmed at him and began batting at him with their wooden clubs.

"Get off me you little gremlins!" shouted Cyborg, punching one of them off him.

"We minions!" squealed one of the brown creatures, who took careful aim and slammed its club right over Cyborg's nose as he had bent down to punch one of its few companions.

The blow was surprisingly strong and blood exploded from his nose and he reared back, clutching his broken nose.

"Uoo Lihhe!" muffled Cyborg before aiming his Sonic Cannon.

A volley of bullets hit him again, forcing him to shield his face to protect what flesh he had left. The brown creatures cheered and moved to surround Robin and his two companions.

The jester-like one wobbled up to him and bowed. "Greetings to the Master!"

"Ur..." uttered Robin unintelligently. too shocked at the sight of the thing.

"We have no time to explain, we need to leave this place now," said the jester creature.

"...Y-You're from my dreams," uttered Robin in disbelief.

"Dreams? Pity, I was hoping I was enough to be the stuff of nightmares," joked the little jester. "But in all seriousness, Master, we must depart, your golem enemy is getting mad, and though we minions are a tough lot...that one is tougher more!"

"Got that right," agreed Robin. He looked up and saw Blackfire was in the middle of combat with her sister and hollered up at her. "Blackfire, come on. We're getting the hell outta here!"

"Not till I beat her to a plump!" yelled back Blackfire.

"Forgot her and retreat, now!" ordered Robin.

The rogue princess glared at him heatedly in anger. She would have liked to blast him right then, but her redheaded sister forced her attention away with a flurry of starbolts. Using some quick aerial maneuvers, she easily dodged then and growled in frustration as her side ached from the injury her teammate inflicted. It would seriously hamper her maneuverability and as much as she hated to admit it, her sister was the faster flyer. But there would be other ways to get back at Starfire and she knew that she needed to stick by Robin for that...win him over to her side and convert his power to her plans to use against her, then she could reclaim her rightful place as Queen of Tamaran. So she'd follow him...for now.

She quickly dove down and started firing starbolts at the earthling vehicles, setting them ablaze to cut off some of the police forces.

Robin grimaced at the mayhem, but there wasn't any time to reprimand Blackfire for putting innocent officers in danger. He looked down at the jester creature. "Lead the way..."

"Follow me then!" replied the jester, then hobbled quickly around the burning vehicles, soon followed by the other brown creatures.

"Blackfire, we're going with them! Follow the...uh, ugly jester thing!" said Robin.

"This is starting to become more troublesome than I thought!" groaned Blackfire.

"You're telling me," nodded Robin, making sure his hold on Tira was good, and then proceeded after the brown creatures.

A metallic hand shot out of the flames, nearly grabbing his head, but he managed to move at the last second and leap away.

"You're not going anywhere, Robin," growled Cyborg, stepping through the flames, then charging forward and threw a punch at him.

Robin growled in annoyance as he dodged the punch and easily spun around him. "Nice try, Cy...but I have no time for you." He then dashed quickly away, soon catching sight of the brown creatures. One of them was waving at him and ushering him to follow, then wobbled into an alley.

He glanced once up to see Blackfire was floating above him. Nodding to her, he darted toward alley, soon catching up with the creatures. They led them all the way to the park and soon to a bizarre hole.

"Quickly, quickly! Into Minion Gate!" squealed the brown creature with the gun, then it flipped into the air and curled into a ball before falling into the tunnel.

"...Can things just stop getting weird on me tonight?" sighed Robin tiredly.

"You actually wanna follow these freaky things down that thing?" questioned Blackfire.

Robin was about to answer when a sonic beam nearly got him in the head. He looked back to see Cyborg charging after them, firing off more sonic beams at them.

"No time! GO!" warned Robin, then jumped into the tunnel, praying he didn't just make a big mistake.

Tira just laughed and hollered excitedly as they pummeled down the glowing tunnel, not caring in the least where it led, so long as it would keep her with her master.

"Ugh, earthlings," groaned Blackfire in irritation before diving into the tunnel.

The other creatures soon jumped in; the last was the jester.

Quaver glared at the charging Titan mockingly and bowed at him. "Too late to be the hero, metal one. The ruler of darkness has returned to his rightful place...and we his loyal minions will see that his birthright will come forth...Toodles!"

He waved once more and performed a back flip right into the tunnel, which quickly closed up behind him. Cyborg came right at the spot the tunnel entrance once was and slammed a fist at it, hoping to break it open, but all he found was dirt. He kept pounding his fists and roaring in frustration as nothing but dirt appeared in his path.

"It won't end here! I'll see that you're stopped before you can get out of hand Robin. I swear it!" shouted Cyborg angrily, still beating wildly on the dirt.

************

In the dark tower, the center of the throne room suddenly came to life as the portal opened up and blue lightning danced down into an opening pit below. The metallic spikes flexed down from the ceiling and spun wildly as Robin and his companions slowed down to a halt from their descent and landed on a platform that quickly closed, sealing the pit, and providing safe footing. Once the energy faded, the spikes returned to whence they came from the ceiling, leaving them in a dark room surrounded by more of the bizarre brown creatures.

"Where are we?" wondered Blackfire aloud, gazing warily at the creatures.

"Wherever it is...I feel...I feel..." awed Robin as he let his gaze absorb his surroundings.

"At home?" an aged, maniacal voice finished.

Gnarl wobbled toward them and stroked his grey goatee as he stared at Robin. "Hmm, this is the last hope for evil? He's a bit short..."

"What are you talking about...and what you mean I'm short!" roared Robin.

Gnarl chuckled and strolled around him to get a better look at who they all believed would be their new master.

"Nothing that time won't cure, Sire. Hmm, you do look evil enough. The eyes, the skin, even the hair is styled in a wicked manner. Oh, very good!" said Gnarl in satisfaction. "But you will need a proper evil education before you can take the full reins as our new Overlord!"

Robin looked at Tira, who was smiling at him uncaringly, then at Blackfire that looked as worried as he felt.

"...Man, things just won't stop getting weirder on me," groaned Robin.

************

**A/N: **Hmmm, thing are getting out of hand for Robin, wouldn't you say? I wonder what Zesalamel has planned for our new dark Overlord...and what is going on with Cyborg? He's acting way really strange...Hehehe, well, you'll have just have to wait and see what the future has in store. So please review and let me know how much you've enjoyed this chapter, so that the dark corners of my mind will keep being inspired.

I'm removing Raven from the list as she has the most votes and will definitely be one of Robin's soon-to-be mistresses. And as for the matter of the number of mistresses that Robin will have, it all depends on how useful you've all made each one out to be, so there will be no set number, because as someone who reviewed this story; true evil Overlord doesn't limited himself to just one mistress...Also, the voting time will end after three more chapters, and whoever has the most votes will become Robin's mistresses, so cast your votes now and wisely.

List of possible candidate: (If there are no votes for a candidate with the next four chapters, they will be removed.)

**Blackfire (7) *********

**Argent (2) ****

**Kitten (3) *****

**Jinx (7) *********

**Terra (5)*******

**Wonder Woman (2)****

**Harley Quinn (3)*****

**Poison Ivy (3)*****

**Tira (7)*********

**Shirley Valentine (3)*****


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer:** I do not own _Teen Titans_ or _Overlord_, _Soul Calibur IV_, _Fable_, _Legacy of Kain_, _The_ _Legend of Dragoon_, _Prototype, Infamous, _plus more to come. They are the rightful property of Cartoon Network/DC Comics, Namco, Triumph Studios, Lionhead Studios, Silicon Knight/Crystal Dynamics, and Sony Computer Entertainment, etc. Any claim I have is merely the plot and making nothing from this.

**A/N: **Again, thank you for all the positive reviews and your support toward the Mistress selection...but as I've kept saying over and over again. Just pick ONE of the selected candidates for EACH chapter, and yes, even if you picked one for each individual chapter, please say so and keep the limit of candidates to the number of chapters posted. THANK YOU! All right moving on, as some have stated, they wish for me to limit the number of mistresses in the harem of this story...and I'm here to say, I'll pick as many as I feel are needed for this story as the mistresses will be more than just pleasure for the young Overlord ex-titan, but advisers, generals, whatever Robin will need to run his domain. So stop bugging me with that as I will be ignoring them from now on. As for the choices for the harem, thank you to those that have given your reasons and I have taken great consideration and now know who will most definitely be in the harem so I will remove them from the selection as I did with Raven and put them on permanent status for this story: Tira, Blackfire, and Jinx.

So that's a total of four mistresses for Robin at this point.

(Gnarl: Ehehehehehe, four beautiful wenches to see wafting about the tower!

Lord Darkmoon: Yes, and all four can easily remove what matters the most from your nether regions...in the most painful of methods.

Gnarl: Er...

Raven: *Eyes glowing* I'll rip them off

Tira: *Smiles insanely.* I'll slice them off

Blackfire: *Eyes and fist glowing* I'll burn them off

Jinx: *Giggles before her eyes flash pink briefly.* I'll bash them off

Gnarl: *Faints with foam bubbling out of his mouth from shock.*

Lord Darkmoon: May we start the chapter?

All four girls: SURE! *turning around to hide various weapons that had been hovering over the unconscious Minion Master behind their backs.*

Lord Darkmoon: *Coughs nervously.* Thank you...Let's let evil continue then.)

* * *

**Dark Legacy**

The tower was buzzing with activity as the minions ran about wildly. They were ecstatic with glee as news of their new Overlord had finally arrived. The minion guards assigned to the throne room were some of the few minions that took their job seriously, which was made apparent as they wacked their fellow minion brethren away from the center of the throne room, where the new Overlord and two of his companions stood. It had been years to them since their last Overlord was trapped in the Abyss, too long for creatures meant to bring chaos and destruction.

"The master is here! The Master, the master!" shrieked one of the Browns, waving its clawed hands excitedly over its head.

"We'll see!" gruffed one standing next to the excited Brown, elbowing its comrade roughly with its pointy elbow.

"That's correct, Razz! Just as the beetle is tested by the dung pile!" exclaimed Quaver, waving his gnawed hand up dramatically.

"Indeed, Quaver! A pity we don't have a yeti for the young master to beat senseless…ah, well! We must move on and find the next best thing!" said Gnarl, rubbing his hands eagerly. "Now then, young Sire. We need to begin by…Sire? Are you listening to me?"

Robin had not been listening to the old minion as his mind was elsewhere. Deep down, he could not help but feel as if he finally felt in place, like he was gone for a long time and now had returned.

"Where is this place?" demanded Robin suddenly, bearing down on the old minion master with his glowing eyes.

The aging minion actually flinched and then grinned happily.

"Why, we are in the _Netherworld_, your evilness! This tower was prepared in readiness of your arrival….uh, after the last one was lost to us."

"Last one? What happened to the last tower?" inquired Robin, feeling very anxious about this other tower.

"You see, my lord, the last tower was attacked by a small army from unknown origin, but they have grown and become…the _Glorious Empire_. Making everyone happy…but whoever disagreed were killed. enslaved, and other unpleasant things…so it's not so glorious, really," answered Gnarl, chuckling manically at the last part.

"…Was there a woman? A human woman living in that tower?" asked Robin desperately.

"Of course there was a human woman! How else would you have been born, my liege?" replied Gnarl, eyeing the new Overlord curiously.

The one-eyed jester stepped forward. "I'm afraid, oh dark and cruel one, that she was lost out in sea. She was supposed to make her escape to a little town up in the Northern area…but we were attacked by…!"

"A robed man with shadows for a face," interrupted Robin.

"Er, why yes! Uh…how did you know that part?" asked Quaver, scratching his head in wonder.

"Because I've been dreaming about her for the past few weeks…I keep seeing a ship departing…then the attack…and a baby being magically taken away before the ship sinks to the bottom of the sea. I…was that baby!" said Robin in astonishment at the realization. "B-But, that can't be true! My family was the Graysons! Circus acrobats! I've been with them since I could remember…"

"Exactly, oh wicked one!" You were too young to know what occurred after I sent us away from the ship," said Quaver, placing both hands on the top of his wand and leaning on it. "After we arrived to the realm you grew up in…well, I sort of lost you."

"Lost him!" outraged Gnarl, wobbling right up to the jester and whacking him over the head. "You lost the young master after saving him?"

The force of the blow was enough for Quaver's fake eye to pop out of his eye-socket, which he fumbled for a moment to retrieve and put back into place. "…A thousand apologizes, but I was in haste and wasn't really thinking of the location very well."

Gnarl grunted in contempt. "I should say so! You sent yourself and the young master to a completely different dimension because of your idiocy!"

"Wait one minute!" interjected Blackfire, who had been completely confused the entire time she arrived to this bizarre place. "Are you saying we're not in the same dimension anymore? All we did was go down that hole? How could that have sent us to a different dimension?"

Gnarl chuckled at the brunette alien. "We minions are magical creatures. Simple laws, like dimensions, do not bind us. We go wherever we must or where our master wishes us to go."

"So no one can find us?" said Robin, sighing in relief. "At least, I can relax some now. Cyborg won't be able to follow us here, ever."

"Indeed, master! Only we minions and yourself can pass through our gates, including any you wish," stated Quaver quickly, bowing to the females.

Robin sighed and leaned tiredly on his knees. "Good…"

Quickly reacting to Robin's state, Gnarl wobbled over to the stone throne. "Here, master! Rest your evil posterior here if you need rest. An Overlord should not be kept standing when tired."

Feeling the need to sit, Robin did as Gnarl suggested and walked over to the throne. The moment he sat down, he felt a surge of energy and all his fatigue went away. He let his gaze wonder about the throne room and the minions and soon felt really good about everything. It felt right to sit on this throne, as if he was made to…giving him a complete sense of security and from all the minion's eager expressions, total authority. Deep down, this greatly pleased him…but he needed to clear up a few things.

"Quaver," said Robin suddenly, reclining more comfortably on the throne.

"Yes, master?" said the jester as he hopped quickly to his side.

"Tell me everything that happened after you arrived to the other dimension."

"I shall, oh wicked one!" praised Quaver, sitting down cross-legged beside the throne. "It is a tale of daring and strife! The journey was filled with many hardships that any other minion may have lost his life-force to, but I pressed on to look high and low for the missing master! Not even the lack of food stopped me, your most devoted of minions! I…!"

Gnarl ran his hand over his face, and snapped impatiently at the jester. "Just get to the point!"

"O-Oh right!" chuckled Quaver nervously, and then cleared his throat. "Right as I arrived and found the master was not with me, I immediately began searching for his magical signature. I soon followed it, but then his magic was suddenly gone! I feared you had been killed, my lord. But as I came to the last spot I sensed you, I smelled you were still alive. Whatever happened in that time must have suppressed your magic and made you more…human," Quaver gagged visibly as he uttered the last word. "I could not find the one responsible, but it had to have been someone with great magical abilities to have suppressed your magnificence!"

"…So, I was abducted soon after I arrived, but why did they let me live…and how did I come to be raised by my….family," wondered Robin out loud, finding the very word, family, difficult to say now, but he still cared for the people that raised him. Although, he despised the idea he never really was related to them by blood, they still cared for him, treated him as their own.

"Very good questions, master…BUT! Enough of them, you have a domain to begin dominating and we must get you prepared!" stated Gnarl. "Now we will begin by…"

"I don't care about a domain right now," interrupted Robin.

Gnarl looked ready to have a heart attack. "But Sire! You must fulfill your duties!" he spoke in a demanding tone.

Robin narrowed his eyes. "…Tell me, Gnarl. What is the purpose of minions?"

"To follow the Overlord's command," replied Gnarl without hesitation.

"Any command and to all minions?" asked Robin.

"Indeed, Sire!"

"…Hmm, in that case. _**SHUT THE HELL UP!**_" roared Robin, slamming his fist on the armrest of the throne.

The force of his words made all the minions cower in silence, even Gnarl, who was flabbergasted found his voice gone in that moment. Never has an Overlord's presence had this kind of command…not since the very first Overlord.

Robin glared down at Gnarl and dark energy began to roll off him. "I have my own agenda to follow, Gnarl. Everything else is unimportant to me!" He soon calmed down. "…At least until later, but for now I still have unfinished business back in Jump City."

"What must be done, Sire?" asked Gnarl weakly once his throat allowed him to talk, not at all happy with this turn of events.

The young dark hero smiled under his makeshift mask. "…I plan to find the ones responsible for suppressing my powers, and there's an immortal I need to take care of." Bluish-lightning crackled around his hands. "And I need to put an end to a threat that I've, up until now, have yet to put down permanently!" He relaxed on his throne and thought to himself. _'And I must return to her…'_

Gnarl perked up at the note of hostility in his new master's voice, grinning evilly. "Not exactly the kind of evil plan you should be on, but it's a start!" He snapped his stubby fingers. "Giblet!" The gun-towing Brown hopped up to Gnarl. "Bring the armor…"

Giblet smiled fiendishly and then waved to a group of Browns impatiently waiting in the main hallway. They quickly ran up to the throne, in each arm they carried a piece of polished grey armor, bowing onto their knees and presenting each piece to their new Overlord.

"This, Sire, is your battle armor…unfortunately, it's not our best," explained Gnarl. "You see, in the rush to escape our old home, we were forced to abandon the smelts in the Forge. However, Giblet here has managed to construct a new Forge for you in this tower, but it takes too much effort to maintain with just Browns. We need the Reds in order to power the Forge properly…"

While studying the medieval armor, Robin growled. "…Are you telling me to go find these…Red minions?"

Gnarl immediately bowed as low as his ancient body would allow. "…H-Humbly suggesting, my lord!"

Robin grunted at him and stood up and walked down to the minions holding the armor. "I don't really need armor anyway. I've always done without it, so I can…"

_"Take the armor, Richard…You will need it for what is to come, and I will do what I can to improve the armor until you can forge a stronger one to use," _whispered Soul Edge from the depths of his mind. _"Soul Calibur will do all it can to stop you as it will see you as me now that I am merging with you. It will no doubt advise its new wielder to do all it can to confront you, and from your memories of him…he will do whatever it takes to defeat you."_

_'…Yes, Slade is a bastard and knows no limits to gain what he wants,'_ agreed Robin, then returned his attention to the minions, who were staring up at him in confusion.

"…Er, never mind what I just said," grunted Robin, clearing his throat. "I'll use this armor and when the time is right, then I will go look for these Reds you mentioned."

"Wise decision, Sire," said Gnarl, stroking his chin and giving his new master a calculating look, then nodded at the Browns holding the armor.

One by one, the Browns approached Robin and began attaching the armor in its needed sequence. As the armor was placed on him, his body rippled as it merged with the armor, making it apart of him and it began to darken to a deathly grey shade and seem to re-mold itself into a sharper, menacing looking style. When the last Brown placed the helmet on him, any sign of the Boy Wonder was now gone. In his place stood an intimating lord in demonic armor. Soul Edge had originally planned to mold the armor as he did to Siegfried's when he had possessed the noble knight, but the Overlord's essence had too much influence and molded the armor to give him the appearance he wore now. His greaves had remained but more armor was added to his legs to give him thicker protection and his waistline was edged with folding plates over his hips and rear. His chest now adorned a chest-plate was common enough, but the design allowed his waist free motion to still grant him his enough the agility he relayed on. His left shoulder was covered with a large three-plated shoulder-guard, and a crimson scarf with gray fur lining it and wrapped around his other shoulder and collar-line. Over his right wrist was a thick armband with a minion's grinning face sneering up at any who would look at it. The last piece was his helmet, a spiky tri-horned helm that completely covered his head and hid the rest of his face in darkness where his mask could not.

"Ah, that is more like it! Now you look like a proper Overlord with that armor, but we have one last piece for your wickedness," stated Gnarl in approval as he himself wobbled up to him with a glimming dark gauntlet. "This, young master, is an important tool to you. It will allow you to call forth minions and send them where you wish, it will also allow you to collect life-force that will allow you to create new minions to serve you, but until the tower is properly fixed up, you will only be able to control a limited number of minions at a time."

"Why is that?" demanded Robin, taking the gauntlet and putting it on his left arm, then watched the round orb glow a dark orange as it connected to him, then saw Soul Edge mold it into a spiky-plated clawed gauntlet. Seeing the glowing orb on his arm left him feeling complete, just as being in this tower felt right to him, so did having this piece of armor attached to his arm. Then he sat back on his throne and once more felt relaxed and composed.

"Because you and the tower are bound by magic, as it grows, you grow, and the more we can fit it with lost artifacts from the old tower, the quicker you will gain power," advised Gnarl.

_"He speaks the truth, Richard. The tower was meant to be a powerbase for an Overlord and its state will reflect the Overlord's status. As it is right now, you are barely at the strength you need to be to confront Slade and Soul Calibur, or any other enemy you may have to deal with," _added Soul Edge.

_'So, it really is unavoidable in prolonging the tower's progression?'_ replied Robin.

_"Indeed. You will need to find the lost artifacts and more if you are to defeat your enemy successfully. So I advise you heed the old minion's council and begin searching for whatever is needed, including these red minions he talked about,_" suggested Soul Edge. _"But…I wish to ask for something before you begin this task."_

Feeling the sword's anxiety, he curiously replied, _'What is it?'_

_"I want you to have Tira to be treated more than a servant and properly trained. She was an important part to accomplishing my plans, but now she is yours to do as you need…but I want her to be prepared for anything that may come."_

_'You really care for her, don't you?'_

_"Don't insult me with such a weak emotion, boy!"_

Robin inwardly smirked and chuckled at the sword. _'You can't fool me, Soul Edge. Whatever you were, had wanted to do, it's obvious you can feel something other than hatred and contempt, even if it was just one person.'_

He was greeted with silence for a long while before he felt the sword respond with frustration. _'I was meant to bring destruction to all living things! I was to devour the souls of all living things and bring the world into darkness…only limited to the will of the Overlord I was meant to serve, but it was a long time until I found you. In that time, I-I began to learn things on my own and one of the things I learned was that even I desired a common companion, as I was meant to be for you. Tira filled that need I longed for while I fulfilled my purpose, and through all that I demanded, she obeyed me without fault and with devotion…and soon I could not deny that I found more than just comfort with her presence, but I cannot say I loved her, that was beyond my abilities to experience for all the rage in my being…but now, after finally fulfilling my true purpose, I can at least feel what she wanted from me through you.'_

_'I see…so you wish for me to care for her as you wanted to, repay her for all that she has done for you,'_ surmised Robin.

_"Indeed, Richard. I was just a tool with a will for destruction, but now I am your tool and apart of you, and now I can allow myself to believe I can do more than I could before. But be warned!" _Robin suddenly felt his insides burn and his mind was gripped with pain. _"Should you ever harm her needlessly or discard her without care, __**I will destroy you and myself and leave nothing behind, not even your soul Richard Grayson!"**_

The pain quickly backed off and Robin groaned from the strain it had left in his body. _'A simple, don't hurt her would have been enough, you damn sword!'_

The demonic sword chuckled darkly. _'And where would the fun in that be? But I needed you to understand that I will carry out my threat should you break your promise to me, boy. I could not truly give her the companionship she desired, so I must leave it in your hands…and I want her to be rewarded for her patience and loyalty.'_

_'…I-I can't promise that I can feel the same as you do, but I will do everything in my being to make sure she is treated well and that she will be ready for what's to come,'_ replied Robin, glancing over to the worried expression on Tira's face.

_"That is all I need to hear from you, Richard. I know you, everything of you. So I know that you will keep your word, but power will corrupt you and time may change your mind, so it was important that you understand where I stand with her, and to understand that I will do all in my abilities to make you into a proper Overlord so long as she is happy."_ having said all it wished to say, Soul Edge retreated back into his mind, closing himself off to rest so he may continue his purpose.

"I shall…." whispered Robin.

"Master? Is something the matter, you went oddly quiet on us for a long time," asked Gnarl with more concern than he would normally voice.

"Everything is fine, Gnarl…I was just having a discussion with my tenant, Soul Edge," replied Robin.

"D-Did you say Soul Edge!" gasped Gnarl, clutching his chest in shock, feeling his black little heart pounding like a hammer.

"Yeah, that's what unlocked my powers," replied Robin. "It was the catalyst that turned my life upside down."

"This cannot be…Soul Edge was lost to oblivion ages ago!" said Gnarl, looking for the first time to all the minions, unsettled.

"It is true, Gnarl. I was there where the young master merged with the sword. When I learned that the humans in his realm had discovered the promised sword, I knew it could help me find the master after my long search, and what luck it was for the master to come to the sword and merge with it!" said Quaver with glee. "And now, we will finally serve under a true Overlord!"

"I cannot believe it…after all these centuries, the wondering and waiting, our true Overlord has come to us!" gasped Gnarl, looking up at Robin in a new light with awe.

"Say what?" uttered Robin, blinking in confusion.

"It was said, by the first Minion Master, my father, Snarl, that the first Overlord who summoned the first minions to serve him created a sword that would be the key to breaking the unending cycle of power to our world. This sword would choose an ascendant of his blood to become the ultimate Overlord, one of which not even the great balance could control. He would be free to do as he desired and bring about an unending reign to all he conquered…b-but the sword was lost after it was forged when a family relative tried to steal the sword from the first Overlord to make its power his own," explained Gnarl. "Where the thief went and how he got away with the sword was a great mystery, but it seems time had granted the discovery of the weapon and now, my young blessed master…you are the one."

"Wait, you mean out of all the Overlords before me that I will surpass them?" inquired Robin, staring in disbelief.

Gnarl nodded eagerly. "Yes! It was all part of the greater plan of creation of our world. You see…there was a disagreement with the gods and one of them was banished to the Abyss where his name and all knowledge of him was forgotten, but he tried to break free and take over the world of the living and everything the Goddess and the other gods had created. Unfortunately, the old cot picked the time right after your father had established himself as the new Overlord and had most of the land under his hand. He defeated the forgotten god…but it cost him dearly. He was trapped in the Abyss and we believe he will always remain there as there is no way out of the Abyss after the Forgotten God was defeated. But at the time, your mother was pregnant with you and we had hoped that we could salvage all that your father had begun…Sadly, that too was stopped when the Glorious Empire invaded our domain and laid siege to the tower." He and all the minions around him bowed their heads depressively. "It was the saddest time in our history books when we lost your father and then lost our original home, even worse, soon after we lost the tower, the Great Calamity befell the land and all of it was lost in it."

"The Great Calamity?" said Blackfire.

"Yes, young lady. The Great Calamity was the result of a great magical explosion from where we still do not understand," said Gnarl, rubbing his goatee. "We had more concerns at the time than to worry about that. We needed to find our Overlord and prepare everything that we could in the new tower for his arrival."

"Humph, seems you didn't do that good of a job," sneered Blackfire, looking around the throne room, having noted the lack of much decoration.

"Without an Overlord to lead us, we minions aren't much for anything as most minion's intelligence is very limited…as you've probably noticed," remarked Gnarl, glaring at a pair of Browns smacking each other over the head and giggling stupidly.

"Yeah, but you don't seem to be like the other minions, why is that?" questioned Blackfire.

"Because the first Overlord saw it fit to have a taskmaster to govern the other minions in his absence, having foreseen his own demise coming with age. He had to make sure we minions could survive without him, but I cannot lead minions properly into battle as I am not physically strong like an Overlord and age hasn't helped that," grunted Gnarl, glaring down at his aged hand. "My purpose is to make sure the minions don't kill themselves and aid the new Overlord in building his domain, that is all."

"I see, you still haven't explained what the purpose of Soul Edge is to me," said Robin, wanting to know more.

"Oh, that! Sorry, I got myself sidetracked, my apologizes," said Gnarl, bowing his head deeply. "Back to Soul Edge. After the Forgotten God was banished, the Goddess herself had foreseen there would be a great unbalance to the world, as there was no deity to keep the powers of darkness in check, but evil always finds a way and had been found in a human that had become the first Overlord, and had seen that darkness bend to his will, but he could not stop the corruption that darkness brings to all living beings, he knew he would lose to it, so did the Goddess. So she made it to where Good would always defeat an Overlord to stop him from becoming consumed by darkness and becoming a mindless entity of unwanted destruction. The Goddess did help the first Overlord, though, by decreeing that his legacy would one day have the will to control the darkness of our world. To aid his decedents, he created a weapon that would help focus the chosen one's will to better control the forces of darkness and destruction."

Robin took this all in silently, hardly believing exactly what he was hearing. "…So, I'll become a god?"

"Only if the Goddess and other gods like you," replied Gnarl quickly. "You may be the chosen one, but you will still no doubt be judged by them and will have to prove yourself to them to be the next deity of darkness. If you don't prove yourself…well, this cycle will start all over again and you will probably meet the same fate as all other Overlords, death!"

"Wow…I wish I hadn't said anything now," said Robin with a deadpanned tone. "…So not only am I some Overlord, but with Soul Edge, I'll become a god?"

"In theory, you will, but that depends on your actions and what you did the moment Soul Edge merged with you," stated Gnarl, wobbling in thought before the throne. "Hmm, there is so much to do and no idea what amount of time we have to get it done!"

"Wait, wait!" shouted Robin, slamming his fists on his armrests. "This is all too much for me! I'm still trying to adapt to the fact I'm some Overlord of another dimension with a evil sword inside me. Now I'm finding out I have the potential that I can become a god? FUCK!" He grasped his face in his hands. "…Just slow down a little for me, please."

"As you wish, my lord," said Gnarl, bowing again to him. "It's just taken me by surprise that the moment overcame me. This is all so exciting!"

"I bet," groaned Robin, sighing tiredly. "I need to rest…and I need time to just think to myself."

"Ah, well…we haven't expected to find you like this, my lord. So we weren't able to prepare a proper bedroom for you. It's still in shambles and isn't really fit to rest in, so you will have to make do with your throne until we can construct a bed for your evilness to use," replied Gnarl gravely, waving at a few minions to go begin.

"Great," moaned Robin, glancing around then wondered something. "Gnarl…if you had all this time in this tower…why didn't you go ahead and get it fixed up properly?"

Gnarl chuckled in embarrassment. "As I said, my job is to keep the minions alive...I cannot get the minions to do a proper job when it comes to anything else. They don't have the attention span and I don't have the patience or influence to make them. That was the job of the Overlord to command and control minions to complete these tasks for him."

Robin thought to himself that was probably how the first Overlord set it up so the minions could not become a threat to him. If Gnarl could control the minions properly there wouldn't be a need for an Overlord and they may have done away with him a long time ago. It was clever of his ancestor to have the minions depend on an Overlord for all tasks so as to keep them docile, but it left a few fails such as when an Overlord wasn't there to control them, they were left almost completely helpless and useless. leading to the state of the tower it was in now. Then it struck him that was probably why they lost the last tower in the first place. If they had no leader to lead them, then like any army without a general, they could not organize a strategy to attack or defend themselves from enemies.

He rubbed his aching head from all the stress that was once again building up in him. He had so much happening to him and now he found himself with more to worry about, like getting a tower full of weird creatures up and running, dealing with Soul Calibur and Slade, and most of all how he was going to confront the Titans when he went back.

What's more…what would that mean between him and Raven?

"Master?" a soft, concerned voice whispered close to his ear, bringing him out of his troubling thoughts.

"Hmm? Oh, Tira, sorry. I zoned out there…I've got so much to think about," said Robin tiredly, more mentally than anything.

Tira nodded and sat down at the edge of his throne, hugging his right leg affectionately. "Whatever master decides will be the right choice."

Robin smiled down at her. It helped to know that he had her to back up whatever he decided to do. He could see why Soul Edge had grown so fond of her when she was in his service, and he had a feeling he would too. Then remembering what Soul Edge had asked of him, he came to a decision.

"Tira, I made a promise to your old master, Soul Edge and that was to make sure you were happy, but the road I will be taking will be harsher than anything either of us had ever had to face. I can probably see to getting you a comfortable life back in the other dimension, or maybe set something up here where you can be safe and happy, I won't force you to follow me down this dangerous road."

Tira pouted at him and smacked his knee, not caring that it was covered in metal or that she hurt herself by doing so. "I made it clear that I will follow my master, no matter where he goes, where my master is, my happiness is, and I will do everything to serve until my very soul burns out!"

Robin cupped her chin and leveled her eyes to his. "I will not allow that to ever happen! I won't allow you to run yourself into the ground and fade out like a candle. You are too important to the sword…and to me now. I cannot say just what I feel because of all that has happened, but if you will believe in me, I will do all in my power to see that you are happy and deal with any obstacles that are thrown in our way."

Tira swooned at his touch and her eyes sparkled with acceptance. She had never heard Soul Edge give her outright praise or concern, she understood it never had to for she never felt it was needed, she just knew, but her new master, this teenager that was becoming one with her master had accepted her into his world and let her know Soul Edge cared for her enough to tell him this. This was all she ever wanted and that was all that mattered to her. At last, she was truly wanted…

"I will serve you…Robin, my master. I will do as you bid without question so long as I am of use to you," vowed Tira, rubbing her face in his hand.

"And I promise to never misuse that trust, ever," stated Robin, feeling a wave of satisfaction from deep within his being.

"…_Thank you_," whispered Soul Edge faintly from the back of his mind.

Robin smiled and motioned for Tira to stand, which she did, as he stood from the throne and placed his gauntlet hand over her forehead.

"From this day on, I hereby make you mine, Tira. Any who dare raises a hand against you will have raised a hand against me, and I seek out vengeance on them should anyone ever try to harm you. Take your place by my side, Tira; you have earned the right to be here by your undying loyalty. And as your reward, your word is my word in my absence when I am elsewhere. All you minions will follow her command s as you would mine, always," decreed Robin, letting his power emit from his being to wash over all the minions.

They all kneeled in respect to their new Overlord and accepted his wishes without hesitation.

"Hehe, it is good that you have selected your first Mistress, young master," snickered Gnarl.

"M-Mistress?" gawked Robin, blushing heavily underneath his mask.

"Why, yes. The position that you have just given her makes her your mistress as you have given her command over us, and we only obey the Overlord…and his mistresses," snickered Gnarl more.

"...Umm, does that mean that I can sleep with him when I want?" asked Tira nervously, not believing that she was given such an honor.

Gnarl flashed her a perverted grin, blushing himself. "Why yes it does, Mistress Tira."

Tira smiled widely and jumped up and wrapped herself around Robin, knocking him off his feet, landing roughly on the throne. "Then I want our bedroom fixed up, NOW!"

All the minions jumped up in panic at her command and frantically started running to begin the setup.

"W-Wait, Tira…I-I, I mean, don't you think that's rushing things a bit? We just met!" stumbled a very embarrassed Overlord.

Tira curled her young body against his, dragging a fingernail over his chest-plate. "All I wanna do is show you my gratitude, my lord…"

Blackfire barked out a laugh and looked away from the scene. "Ugh, I so do not need to see or hear this kind of stuff right now."

"Oh? You don't wanna see our lord's hot body and ravage it in unending bliss?" smirked Tira, eyeing the brunette playfully.

Blackfire snapped back at the bi-polar girl, with a heavy blush on her orange cheeks. "I would never touch that annoying, do-gooder!" She huffed and stomped away from the pair. "Besides…he's so not my type."

Something in Robin complied him to play along with Tira. "So, even if I were to help you in your endeavor against your sister, you wouldn't be tempted?"

Blackfire stopped in her tracks and she turned around, glaring at him with burning purples eyes. "I'm not some whore like that bitch to be used like that, no matter how much I want my sister to pay!"

Robin carefully got Tira off him and stood up and slowly marched over to Blackfire, as he did, his power let out a blast of killer intent directly at Blackfire, forcing the alien ex-princess to flinch back in fright.

"I didn't mean it like that…but never insult Tira like that again or I will kill you where you stand, Blackfire," warned Robin in a soft, low tone.

"F-Fine," replied Blackfire weakly, not able to pull herself away from his piercing gaze.

He grabbed her hand and pulled her close to him, wrapping an arm around her waist and nearly crushing her against his armored body.

"If you aid me in my agenda, I will see about giving you what you always wanted, Blackfire. Your planet and your people back to you. I cannot promise that I will kill your sister, even after she betrayed me, I…I'm not able to do that, but I won't stop you either when the time comes. I'll even help you get strong enough to do all this," said Robin, leaning his face close to hers and feeling pleased when he saw her lips tremble with awe. "All I ask…is for you to help me now and nothing else…That is unless you want something more?" He cupped her face and stroked her long black hair; meaning just to tease her but the reaction he got out of her was much the same as when he touched Tira.

Feeling so overwhelmed, Blackfire pushed him away from her, fighting with her own body to suppress the reaction he had somehow worked up inside her. "…J-Just lay off, will you? I'm not going to become your woman to use as you please like that bimbo over there." Her face flushed and she glanced at him nervously. "…B-But you really would help me get my home-planet back?"

Robin placed his fist over his chest. "I vow this to you Blackfire as long as you don't betray me like your sister did, I will see that you are a ruler again."

Blackfire just stood there in awe at him. This was the same person that had helped in overthrowing her and stopped her from seeking revenge on her sister since she came to earth, and now he was here with her, pledging to help her get it all back.

"Just what is in it for you? I know you can't be doing this all for free?" snapped Blackfire, trying to find some hint of trickery in him.

He shrugged at her. "I will need allies and Tamaraneans like you and your sister are strong warriors and I will need strength like that someday. If I can help you get back into power, than we can form an alliance to aid each other when we need it. I'm not smart as you might be when it comes to ruling, but I know enough that I will need all the support and strength from others that I can get. Besides, your sister gave up her right to rule and gave it to Galore, she doesn't want to rule and I know she gave it up so she could stay on earth. Had you not tried that stunt you pulled on her, I wouldn't have cared what you did as ruler, as it was your right…but now things are different." He walked by her and she and Tira followed him down the hallway that led to a large stoned balcony, giving them all a view of walls dripping with hot lava and floating stone all around the tower. After a long silent period, Robin continued again. "I've lost all feelings for her when she betrayed me, the rage that I feel for her won't let me forgive her, but I won't kill her out of respect for all we faced together. But I can help you in your endeavor, Blackfire. It would be my own way of getting back at her for what she has done to me. All I ask in return is loyalty and an alliance once you become queen of Tamaran again."

She just stared at him, trying to still find the lie or trick he may have laid in his words, but she knew he was being honest. His offer was genuine and she found herself believing every word he said. This was all too good to be true and she was too cautious in nature to just give into a gamble like this. It was the only thing that kept her alive all this time when she had no one.

"I don't trust anyone, Robin," spat Blackfire.

"I'm not asking for trust. I'm asking for your loyalty," replied Robin, meeting her angry eyes with his own. "I meant everything I said but I will not aid anyone that will stab me in the back like my teammates, so chose now, Blackfire! Aid me and get your kingdom back…or leave now and never bother me again. Just understand that this is a one-time offer. I will never make it again…and you know I keep my word."

That she knew. That was the one thing she was still sure of this dark hero. He was too honorable for his own good and it had nearly been his downfall, but still he always survived and just seeing the being he had become now, owning such power at his disposal…and she could use that power to regain all that was rightfully hers by birthright, and what was more, he was willing to do it! No tricks, no carefully planned manipulating on her part. She felt he really wanted to help her, even if it was his revenge against her sister, that really was all she needed for her to accept his offer. It was just too tempting a chance.

"You better not be trying to pull anything on me," warned Blackfire, charging a starbolt in her fist.

Robin didn't respond at all to the threat as he continued to stare out at the hellish environment. "I know what to expect from you, Blackfire. So long as you don't interfere with my affairs, I will do what I can for you in return for your help."

"…Agreed," replied Blackfire stiffly, folding her arms under her chest after deactivating her starbolt. "…So what now, Robin?"

"Now, I see just what resources I have here…Oh, by the way, I've decided to drop my title as Robin as I'm no longer that person. He died the moment Soul Edge plunged into him and was forgotten when his own friends betrayed what was left of him." revealed Robin, turning to his two female companions, his eyes flashing a darker orange. "I am…_**Overlord**_ from now on."

"Wow, never say that coming," drawled Blackfire.

"I did!" cheered Tira, then wrapped her arms around his arm, then whipped her head back and shouted at the top of her lungs with a scary expression. "WHERE THE HELL IS OUR BED! I WANT MY OVERLORD CUDDLE TIME, NOW!" scaring the Browns to hustle faster.

"Uh, Tira…about that," the now labeled Overlord uttered. "Can't we just start out as friends?"

"NO!" snapped Tira and began dragging him back into the throne room. "You made me your mistress and want me happy, so I want you with your pants off to make me happy!"

Blackfire burst out laughing at that, holding her sides. "Try not to break anything important, girl!"

"No promises!" beamed Tira with an insane smile.

"…Dear god what have I gotten myself into?" mourned Overlord as he was dragged back into the throne room, in his mind he could hear Soul Edge roaring with laughter.

"This is so unbecoming of a rising Overlord. At least you could have pillaged a village for some gold to afford your Mistress some lovely knickknacks! Women love knickknacks…" said Gnarl as he shook his head disapprovingly.

"Right now, this woman wants the knickknack in our master's pants!" grinned Tira.

Some of the minions broke out laughing, including Gnarl himself who quickly tried to suppress it and wipe the drop of blood leaking out of his flat nose.

Quaver came hopping from down the stairs leading up from behind the lava pool behind the throne. "We did the best we could, master! We had to pluck a lot of feathers from the local pit-raptors...which none of them liked having done to them, but we constructed the softest bedding we could muster with the limited resources we have, oh desirable one!"

"Thanks!" said Tira, patting his head and went up the stairs.

At that point, Overlord pulled out of her grip and before Tira could react, was grabbed off her feet and swung over his shoulder and then slapped her butt, hard.

"If you're so set on this happening than I'm going to do it _MY_ way!" growled Overlord darkly and stormed up the stairs, then stopped and glared at Quaver. "Well? Lead me to our bedroom!"

"Y-Yes, of c-course!" stuttered Quaver, quickly bolting up after his master and leading him to a large cavernous room.

The first impression that he got was that it was badly shaped and made the Batcave look like a royal palace. He could see the massive cracks and bad patch up work the minions tried to do with wooden planks…and just how badly they've done it.

"This is my bedroom?" said Overlord with distaste.

"W-We will try and refurbish it as best we can, oh fashionable one!" groveled Quaver.

"Hmm, no Quaver…I know you all tried to do your best. As soon as I can, I will begin looking for resources we will need to shape this place up," said Overlord. "You all did good...now all of you leave."

Quaver grinned up fiendishly at Tira, who smiled back at him, and waved for all the Browns that were still trying to work on the room to depart. "Come on now, my busy brethren. Let's let our unholy master unleash his manly sem—oopfh!" He cried when Overlord's heel suddenly slammed into his face and kicked him straight out of the bedroom.

"It's bad enough you all know what's gonna happen…but you don't have to broadcast it!" grumbled Overlord in irritation.

"Hehe, he was about to say semen!" giggled Tira.

Overlord groaned and slapped her butt once more, enlisting a sharp squeak from her.

"Mmm, harder," she purred, rubbing her hands over his back.

"Oh, I plan to," said Overlord lowly with a wicked smirk, moving toward a small platform where ragged drapes were hung around it.

He pulled the drapes to the side to find a wood framed bed, hastily designed, but still looked to be made of fine quality dark wood. It was queen's size, which he smirked as it would be appropriately large enough for him and Tira to have some fun on. The mattress itself was a bit lumpy looking, but was sown nicely and appeared to be made of cotton, as for the only sheet on the bed, it was a simple grey wool blanket as where the pillows.

"Hmm, they really can build something when you tell them to," admired Robin, as he closed the drape behind them and lightly tossed Tira on the bed.

She rolled onto her knees and bounced on it. "Mmm, feels sturdy."

"Let's give it a real test run," said Overlord deeply, leaning forward on the bed.

"Get the armor off, first. Don't want it cutting up the bed, master," said Tira.

Just as he thought of taking off the armor, his body rippled red and black and the armor disappeared, leaving him in just his spandex shirt and pants. He looked at his bare hands for the first time and saw the strange blue lines running up to his wrists and over the back of his hands. His fingernails were black as onyx and slightly pointed, which gleamed in the torchlight.

Tira crawled up to the edge of the bed to him and wrapped her slender fingers around his hands. "Master has such strong hands."

He brought her hands up to his pale lips and kissed her knuckles tenderly. She purred up at him and grabbed his shirt and slowly dragged him onto the wooden bed with her, lying down on it and pulling him up over her. She fixed him with a flirty expression before it softened and she pulled him down next to her, surprising him and snuggled against his chest. She sighed in contentment and closed her eyes as she wrapped her arms around his body.

"Master is so warm, too," she whispered softly.

"Tira…?" Overlord murmured softly.

"I just want to be close to you right now, master," Tira said. "Your heart isn't for me…I know that, as my heart is for Soul Edge. Your heart is back in our old world, waiting for you to return to her."

"Tira, I …"

She quieted him with a finger on his pale lips.

"Don't need to say anything," Tira said softly, pulling him closer to her and wrapping her legs around his. "I just…I just want this right now. I need it."

For the first time since his change, a warm smile appeared over his wicked face. His arms soon found their way around her and he placed his face on the top of her head.

"I'll do everything in my power to make up the loneliness you've had to endure, Tira. You'll never feel unwanted ever again," he promised softly to her, kissing her mess of teal hair.

Something wet fell from her eyes, she reached up to feel tears fall freely from her face, after hearing his declaration, she felt the happiest she has ever been for the very first time. "Thank you…my Overlord," Tira said, closing her wet eyes.

He held her tenderly and soon heard her breathing slow down, signaling she had fallen asleep. He listened to her soft breaths and found his eyes closing. He never realized when sleep claimed him…nor did he realize a pair of purple eyes staring in wonder and uncertainty at the pair on the bed from the drapes.

Blackfire, somewhat curious as to the lack of noise she was expecting to hear, came to investigate and see if he was still chickening out about sleeping with his slave girl. What she didn't expect was the intimate moment that the two shared together. She was disappointed that they weren't mating as everyone believed, but she found herself disturbed that she found the moment touching. She was never known to be soft or weak in any regard. She never allowed herself to give into weak emotions like affection or kindness, yet when she saw this monstrous, fearsome ex-Titan just show he still had some measure of a heart, she began to wonder how she could use it over him…but then her mind began to wonder if someone like her could ever receive such warmth from someone like this newly proclaimed Overlord. When she finally realized she was thinking along that line, she swiftly flew away from the bedroom and out of the tower, as fast as she could.

She flew about around the tower and soon found a floating rock hovering lazily close to the small fall of lava pouring down the rocky wall. She landed on the rock and sat on it, and after looking around to make sure she was truly alone, did she pull her legs into her arms and hid her face in the nook between her knees.

"I'm not weak…I'm not weak. I'll use him to regain all that is mine!" she said to herself with shaky conviction. "I must have my title back…i-it's all that I can ever hope to have!"

A few moments later, the sound of soft sobs echoed off the walls of the Netherworld.

* * *

**A/N:** Hmm, things are really turning out strangely for the fall boy wonder. What unexpected surprises await this now rising Overlord? More will be revealed in time…and soon depending on the number of reviews that follow the this post. Also, I've taken all my reviews from the previous chapter under great thought, and some the ideas I saw were inspiring and the candidate suggestions intrigued me, so here's the addition to the candidate list.

List of possible candidate: (If there are no votes for a candidate with the next four chapters, they will be removed.)

**Argent (4) ******

**Kitten (5) *******

**Terra (9)***********

**Wonder Woman (5)*******

**Harley Quinn (5)********

**Poison Ivy (8)**********

**Shirley Valentine (4)******

**Wonder Girl (Donna Troy) (2)** **

**Ravager (Rose Wilson) (2)****

**Batgirl (1)***

**Galatea (1)* **


	5. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer:** I do not own _Teen Titans_ or _Overlord_, _Soul Calibur IV_, _Fable_, _Legacy of Kain_, _The_ _Legend of Dragoon_, _Prototype, Infamous, _plus more to come. They are the rightful property of Cartoon Network/DC Comics, Namco, Triumph Studios, Lionhead Studios, Silicon Knight/Crystal Dynamics, and Sony Computer Entertainment, etc. Any claim I have is merely the plot and making nothing from this.

**A/N: **Yes, I'm still alive and trying to focus more on getting my stories done along with normal life…especially after some hardships I had to endure this year. Anyways, thank you all for your reviews, and those that gave a critical reason for your choices in the Mistress selection, I appreciate the time you took to explain why. As for those that simply listed who they wanted, I'm afraid I ignored those as I have stated already before that you need to give an explanation as to 'why' you picked them. And yes, just saying, they're badass isn't really an explanation. I want to see some actual participation here, people. How else can I make sure you are all enjoying this if you're just saying…"whatever"…in your reviews, hmm?

Moving back to the people that have done as I ask, I have taken what you've asked and have worked some of your suggestions into the story, so I thank you all deeply for your time and ideas.

I also know some people do not like the idea of some of the chooses in the Mistress selection, such as Wonder Woman, Batgirl, Harley Quinn, and Poison Ivy…simply for the fact that they are too old. Allow me to point out a few things. To start with, have I stated that Robin will be gaining all these mistresses at once? As in the game, Overlord II, he did not begin to collect his original three mistresses until he was of an adult age. For the sake that if I am going to have Robin pursue these women, it will be over a length of time that he gains all his loyal mistresses. Another point I wish to make is, Wonder Woman. She will never age, as she wasn't born under normal conditions and was granted many gifts from the Greek gods, namely her Enhanced Healing and Beauty, and the fact that she can become one with the earth and reshape her body when she needs to, allowing her to always remain young looking. So she will always be of the same age physically, so it won't be unheard of if an older Overlord wishes to pursue her. Now moving to my main point, which I know some of you already have reasoned for yourself. The Overlord can corrupt anyone. He turned Queen Fay, a being of goodness, into an evil-aligned mistress (even if you kill her, which I never chose to do.) She's devoted to him and accepts her 'death' and stays with him…that's strong magic, there. So if Robin wanted to corrupt Wonder Woman or someone like her, it is well in his power to do so when he fully sets in his role as Overlord.

(Gnarl: That was very generous of you, my lord, to go to that much depth to explain potential Mistresses.

Lord Darkmoon: *just narrows his eyes.* You're only sucking up because you want a chocolate bar…

Gnarl: Umm, well….

Lord Darkmoon: Why did I ever think it would be a great idea to give chocolate to minions?

Gnarl: Because you are just that generous, my lord.

Lord Darkmoon: Uh-huh…well if you feel that way…how about a pot of chocolate?

All the minions: Really!

Lord Darkmoon: Oh yes…I will give any minion all the chocolate he can ever want…if he can do just one thing

All the minions: What, what!

Lord Darkmoon: Raven, if you would be so kind…

Raven smiles evilly and levitates a huge pot of steaming, boiling chocolate and places it before him.

Lord Darkmoon: Whoever can swim in this pot of boiling chocolate for ten minutes…can have all he wants.

Gnarl: …Umm, wanna go first? *looking over at Quaver.*

Quaver: Even I'm not that idiotic…or that desperate.

Lord Darkmoon smiles and glances at Raven: And that's how you cure an addiction.)

* * *

**Deadly Voltage**

Across in the other dimension, around the same time when an unusual massive surge of energy appeared and disappeared in Jump City. Another massive surge erupted unexpectedly in Empire City, but unlike the harmless wave of energy that exploded inside Jump and collapsed back from where it originated, the one that appeared in Empire blacked out the entire city, leaving a wave of explosions all around it and growing by the second. Each pulse that emitted from the surge left destruction and death, sending vehicles flying and landing on poor pedestrians like flaming fireballs. One such vehicle was sent flying like a speeding cannonball far out beyond the city limits. Sadly, said vehicle struck a news helicopter that had been filming the bizarre phenomenon and sending it crashing down to be lost in the sea.

When the blast finally started to subside, it revealed a blackened, burned city with barely any power coursing through it. In the center of where the blast had emerged was a circular crater brimming with scorched earth and concrete and vehicles, but oddly, a small circle of street that seemed to be completely unharmed. In that unharmed circle were three figures. Two of them were lying on the ground unconscious, the other was standing over them, seemingly observing them and taking their vital signs.

"Activation plus six minutes…pulses are both forty-five, respiration ten…Looking good Cole…" said the figure, smiling grimly down at a young man that looked in his mid twenties, with a buzzed hair cut and what remained of his clothes was a yellow and black tracksuit and baggy grayish-brown cargo pants, all singed or blackened. "And same goes for you…whoever you are," he added, looking down at the other unconscious person. This person was dressed in a funny manner. To start, he seemed to be a teenager who wore a skull mask with red slash marks on the forehead in an X pattern. The ragged remains of his black suit had another red slash mark on his chest and his tattered cape barely covered his shoulders. His grey gloves were completely burned away, leaving blackened skinned hands, almost looking charred to the bone. "Hmm, had you been a second slower…you'd have been killed. No matter, whoever you are…you don't have anything to do with my plans…but just to be safe." The man picked up the masked teenager. "It be best if you weren't here when Cole awakes…"

He carried the teenager down a safe pathway leading from the circle and made his way into a half crumbled parking deck. As he entered, he heard the sound of a helicopter arriving and shouting loudly at someone. He turned around to see Cole standing and looking around in confusion. He quickly departed before Cole spotted him and safely got out of the parking deck and made his way past all the police as they were trying to get the survivors out of the wreckage. He had to get this teenager away from the scene before he awoke…

He jumped off the bridge when no one was looking and landed on a private boat he had waiting for him just below. He no sooner landed, falling gracefully and without harm from the great fall, on his boat when the bridge above him began to erupt as electrical energy ran wild above him, destroying the remains of the bridge, killing some of the bystanders still trying to cross it, or unable to move due to their own injuries from the massive blast before. The man smiled and nodded in an approving manner.

"Good, Cole…you'll do me proud," the man said darkly, dropping the teenager onto the boat's deck. "You on the other hand…I have no idea who you are, or why you were after the Ray Sphere, but I will find my answers before I decide what to do with you." He waved his hand and an electrical current passed over the boat and started its engines, then it began sailing away from the ruined bridge and seemed to be steering itself over the water.

As the boat drove on its own to whatever location, the man kneeled down by the boy and removed the mask, then put the mask back on the boy. "Hmm, still don't know you…but I will soon enough." He placed both his hands on the boy's head, and then instantly he began to see visions of the boy's life, how he became this masked individual and the exploits he commented afterward. "Fate must like you, kid…and even luck must, too, to make you a Conduit."

The teenager began to stir and the man quickly placed his hand on the masked boy's face, a white pulse began to emit from his hand and the boy became still again.

"Sorry, but if you wake up now, you might blow up my little boat…and I don't like getting wet," the man joked to the sleeping teenager.

The boat finally arrived to a dock just on the far side of where the blast had occurred. What remained of the Historic District was already being salvaged by his loyal men, the First Sons; noting some of them were on the ground unconscious. As he walked by, he saw some of them waking up and he could feel the power born inside them from the blast. He would soon put them into training for the trials he had planned to set in motion, but right now he needed to handle his unexpected guest. The men under his command, seeing him arrive, all stiffened and saluted him as he passed them, nodding to them briefly, then they returned to their tasks, even the ones that had just awoken knew to get back to work on repairing the damages and fortifying the area, but these men, he soon ordered to go report in the Infirmary and for his experts to begin studying them to see just how much power they obtained from the blast. He needed to see what they would be truly capable of before he could ascertain their usefulness in his grand plan.

He himself took the teenager to the Infirmary to receive proper medical treatment, but stated to his physicians and scientists to not take away his suit, and in fact, see to it that it was repaired and ready for his usage. He had a guess about this unsuspecting lad that had tried to steal the Ray Sphere from Cole, and if he was correct, then maybe this boy could aid him in molding Cole to become the right instrument needed for the greater good of the world. But first, he needed to analysis him and sees what will happen, gauge his powers…and prepare a proper bribe for the lad's unknowing volunteer in saving mankind.

From the visions, he knew this was the infamous thief, Red X. And as such, he knew that the boy would most likely bolt for it once he awoke and found himself amongst people that now knew his identity. He couldn't have an unknown factor getting in his way should the thief decide to attack him to keep his secret quiet. He'd rather have this person work for him and shape him for what will come in the near future. But if he proved to be unreliable, then he would have no choice but to deal with this thief and silence him before he ruined everything.

He sat down in a chair across from the bed in which Red X was now resting in, watching as he was hooked up to monitors and IVs, and pondered over this turn of events.

Just then, one of his men came up to him with a report in his hands and gave it to him without a single word, just simple obedience. He took the report without so much as a glance at the man, but made a mental note to give him good marks at his efficiency and speed. Glancing down at the report, he immediately jumped out of his seat as he read the contents it revealed.

"No…NO, NO, NO! It's too soon!" He raged, throwing the report down on the ground, as it had ignited into flames by the electrical surge running over his hands and arms. "This wasn't how the Beast appeared. He appeared in Neon District! Why did the anomaly appear in Jump City?" He brought his angry gaze at the man that had brought him the report. "Is this all that you have on the event that transpired in Jump City?"

The man didn't blink or flinch back at him, standing his ground cool and calm and nodded his head to him. "We still have our men stationed in Jump City looking into what happened. But I must state…you didn't finish reading the rest of the report."

He frowned impatiently at the man. "And do tell what I missed then?"

"The strange anomaly that occurred in Jump didn't leave anything destroyed, unlike the prophecy you have told us. This one seemed to result in no one being harmed. But there was also a strange event that had happened only hours after the anomaly," the man replied, still maintaining his calm composure. "It seems a hero by the name of Robin had gone rogue on his team, the Teen Titans, and fled and was reported to be captured and detained at any cost by one of his own teammates, an individual codenamed Cyborg. There was a manhunt for the boy until he was confronted back at the zero point where the anomaly happened, but then this is where it got stranger. It seems a group of small creatures came and aided the hero and helped him escape. That is, unfortunately, all the information we have on the situation. The men stationed at Jump City to capture Sisha's men reported as well, too." Here he grimaced and looked up somewhat pale. "…They found the bodies of the men from the scene, all dead. We won't know for sure the exact cause of death until after the bodies are returned and study them more closely."

He sighed somewhat at the relief of his fears not coming true. For a moment, he believed that all his careful plans had been for nothing, all the sacrifices were in vain...but he still couldn't leave this to chance and be proven wrong, especially with the death of the men sent by Sisha to 'recruit' more people for her petty vengeance against him. "Then we need to find the answers quickly…and see if their deaths and this rogue Titan are interlocked. I want a full investigation of the situation in Jump City; pay whoever you need to off, threaten who might know. I want answers to this event in Jump City, now!"

What neither men noticed as they discussed this event was a cracked open eye, barely making out their image. The eye glowed crimson red for a brief moment, and then Red X fell back asleep with one word in his mind.

'_...Robin.'_

* * *

Currently in Jump City, the Titans had returned to the tower in grievous of all that had happened, save for Cyborg, who since they found in the park pounding away senselessly at the ground, had been snarling very uncharacteristically. Raven, who they had found up on the rooftop, unconscious, went straight to the Infirmary to tend to her bruised face, not uttering a single word to anyone. Starfire looked to have withdrawn into herself. The encounter with her evil sister helping Robin out left her feeling very confused. Mostly on why Robin was even working with her.

"Where are the other Titans?" Cyborg demanded to no one in particular, hooking himself up to the Titan's computer-system. "We need everyone!" he sent out the distress signal once more and with more power.

"Cy, come on! We need to calm down for a sec and think this out," Beast Boy said, feeling he needed to be the voice of reason here. "We gotta figure out what the heck is going on! And what the heck was up with those little brown things that showed up?"

Cyborg gritted his back teeth in frustration, but then he let out a tired sigh and rubbed his sweating head. "Y-You're right. I don't know what's gotten into me."

"Maybe that bizarre surge of energy that appeared at the museum affected things more than what we believe," Starfire thought out loud. "It was just after that even did Robin change into…whatever he is now."

Cyborg agreed silently with the alien princess. Something strange had been going on inside him. He felt it every time he saw the new Robin, and it was driving all his instincts to subdue the Boy Wonder, and it really scared him how cold he felt himself grow inside during those moments. It probably wouldn't hurt to run a full diagnostic on himself, and he would check the others out to make sure none of them may be affected, just to be safe.

"Once we have more Titans here, then we'll check ourselves out. In the meantime, I want everyone to stay on high alert for Robin to make his appearance," Cyborg ordered.

Beast Boy slumped as he sat down on the couch. "Man, this has been a creepy evening. I still don't understand how everything went nuts like this."

"If there is any blame, it is on Slade. He cased all this when he broke into the museum," Starfire said, sitting down next to her green friend. "Once we get Robin back, we can cure him, then we can focus on Slade."

"But did you see that look in Robin's eyes? Well, kinda hard not to when they were glowing like they were, but he was seriously raging, Star! He looked like he didn't want anything to do with us," Beast Boy said, feeling a cold chill run down his spine as he recalled the memory. He was still in the T-Car when Cyborg stormed off and fired at Robin, when he was being held by Blackfire. He saw the look as clear as day after Robin landed with surprising easy, and with powerful strength. He saw the burning rage boiling in his eyes and knew that wasn't the Robin they knew.

"It is as Raven said. The amount of negative energy Robin was exposed to had changed his perceptive and he is reacting to his unnatural fury…I really pray he isn't suffering right now. He must be so lonely right now…no one around he feels he can trust, and my sister is taking advantage of him! If he is in some kind of torment because of her…she will regret it." Her eyes burned as her own fury boiled up inside as she pictured the kind of horrible things her sister may be putting in her boyfriend…or who she hoped would still be her boyfriend once this entire venture was put to rest.

In the Infirmary, Raven had easily healed her bruised face. She only remained there because she wanted to go over Robin's last vital readings herself. Normally, she would have trusted Cyborg to such things, but his recent behavior left her questioning his judgment now. Pulling up the information, she took her time analyzing the data, hoping there was some clue in it that would make sense of the strange phenomenon that was happening around Robin. She felt it all began with the recent dreams he had been having. The appearance of the brown creatures he always mention in them confirmed that to her that Robin had been experiencing either a vision…or maybe a memory locked away.

She understood him better than anyone, after all.

Even better than Starfire, who thought she did because of her feelings for him; it was childish of her to believe she did. Starfire wasn't linked to him like she was when he was fighting a chemical agent set as a booby-trap they discovered in one of Slade's masks. She witnessed his darkest moments, his most treasured thoughts, the things that made him the hero they all respected….and his suppressed darkness.

That darkness; it made her curious for a very long time. It made her worry some too because it was during those odd dreams that it began to grow, and it forced to her to begin secretly studying it without Robin's knowledge. She was sure he wasn't even aware he had such a pit of darkness within his being, which made her hesitate to tell him and take it into her own hands to make sure he would be safe from it. If it proved to be a problem growing in him, she would have alerted him and helped him take measures to keep it from getting out of hand. Before she started her observation, she assumed it was the suppressed emotions he experienced when he lost his family, but then she noticed it was there long before the incident when she dove inside his mind through their link to scan his memories. It was an invasion of his privacy and she wouldn't have ever gone to that length, but he was beginning to worry about the dreams, and he came to her for her help, even going so far as to give her his permission to do what she needed to understand what was the cause of his strange dreams. So she went back as far as she could, looking into his spirit and finding that coil of darkness had been with him since he was born, but then that's when she became very curious. When she tried to watch the very first few memories he had as an infant, there was a blank wall around that time. She probed it and tried to get through it but when she did, she was always repelled from it and by a very powerful force. As she studied his barrier, she realized that it was created by an outside source, as if someone never wanted Robin or anyone to see that small bit of his life. It held all the answers and she felt that it would explain everything to why he was having those dreams.

She began to theorize that they were more than dreams when her teammates reported seeing the brown creatures help Robin, the same ones that should only be a representation of something in his mind. To find out they were real led her to believe his subconscious mind wanted him to remember things that were blocked from him. It was trying to alert him of what he truly needed to know and the only way it could reach him was when he was relaxed in sleep and the barrier that blocked his memories couldn't deter his subconscious mind. But this was all her own personal theory and that was all she had.

She wasn't a detective like Robin, but she was sharp enough to look at the real meaning behind clues left behind that would baffle others. Even now as she scanned the vital readings, she saw what was really going on with Robin: he had evolved.

His exposure to the phenomenon didn't just alter his appearance and mindset, it evolved his entire cellular structure to adapt and handle the negative energy he absorbed. He was a wholly entire different being. Although his readings said he was still classified human, as far as the computer could tell from his scan, he was an improved human being. There was no sign of genetic flaws, no toxins in his system that would cause natural health issues as he grew older. He had become the perfect being as far as modern science would surmise. The only drawbacks she could see was the color alterations of his skin and hair, and of course, his eyes, and the obvious increase of aggression, but really, those were minor drawbacks when compared to the benefits he received. She herself wouldn't be considered safe if everyone judged her by her own traits, as her features were not like normal people and she also had an abnormal aggression that would make others afraid, but she had help with that her entire life.

Robin didn't have any help. He was slammed with it too suddenly and without any protection. It was only natural he wouldn't know how to control his new rage. He was dangerous from what the readings told, and from his natural reaction to everything revealed when he woke up from the massive exposure, but he was still reasonable. It was evident when she talked to him in a rational manner that he was still in control of himself. Had he not been threatened and then attacked by everyone, he would not have fled from them as he had felt the need to.

Yet Raven had a feeling had he been merely defending himself. From all the evidence it was likely he could have taken them all down, and very easily. This was why she still trusted him so much, and why she knew him better than anyone. No matter the situation, he would never hurt his friends. He would rather put the harm on himself than them…but that trust was broken by them. She felt partly guilty herself for letting them go that far, and she would see to it that it was fixed; at least for herself. She could not forgive her friends for turning on Robin the way they had, particularly Cyborg who seemed to oddly be overcome by a cold, almost machine-like conviction to lock Robin up. He had done nothing to deserve that kind of treatment. If anything, he was defending himself and tried to make sense of the chaos that befell everything. That was another sign that he was still aware of things like his normal self.

What she was more curious about was why did Robin have that strange girl on his back, and for that matter, why was Blackfire helping him?

The latter was a known villain that would never work with others, not matter the situation. For her to be helping him meant she was hoping to use him somehow, and she bet the chakra gem on her forehead, that it was to hurt Starfire in some manner. The sister's deadly rivalry was well-known to all and it wouldn't be surprising to find out Blackfire aimed to use Robin's uncertainties to warp his outlook and forge him as a tool for her to use. In his state of mind, he could possibly be used that way, but that idea was shot down as she remembered he was giving _her_ the orders; and that was proof that there was more to it, as Blackfire wasn't the type to be ordered by anyone but herself. So she had to conclude that she was still attempting to manipulate him, and failing.

The teal-haired girl was a total mystery. She could not understand the connection between her and Robin, or why for that matter the girl seemed so…submissive to him. There weren't enough facts about her yet to draw any conclusion yet, until she could get more information on the girl and where she came from, and how exactly she fit into this chaotic drama.

She was so focused on her musing, she never noticed someone entering the Infirmary and walking over to her until that person cleared her throat. "Oy, Raven…I heard you got hurt. Is everything all right?"

Were Raven anyone else, she would have jumped at the sudden intrusion and instantly turned off the screen she was still staring at. The only reason she did not was because she felt the person that spoke was probably the only sane mind left in the tower.

Turning slowly in her chair, she glanced at a girl with silver-colored skin and black hair with two red bangs hanging down on either side of her round, petite face. As if to play up her gothic coloring, she wore a black corset-like dress with a spiky red skirt flaring out around her lower torso, with black, fingerless gloves that reached up past her elbows, black combat boots and a black choker around her delicately thin neck, and on the center of her chest was a slashed A tattoo.

"I'm fine, Argent. I just got a little bruised, really. Nothing I couldn't fix quickly," Raven replied, returning to her musings over Robin's vital-stats.

Argent came over and started reading the screen herself. "Whoa, who's this character? He looks like superman on steroids!"

"…That is Robin," Raven answered simply.

"Oh, Robin? Wait…ROBIN?" Argent shouted with wide, disbelieving eyes. "I hear he'd gone rogue, but this reading is stating he just went Super Saiyan!"

Raven rolled her eyes. "It's worse than that…much worse, but not as it seems."

"What do you mean by that, Raven?" Argent asked.

Raven quickly went over everything that had transpired, not leaving out anything as she described how the other Titans had reacted after Robin's change. She wanted to voice her suspicions to what was happening to Robin, but she wasn't quite sure if Argent might change her opinion of Robin like everyone else has. Too her relief, when she had finished explaining everything, Argent was now pacing the Infirmary, cursing up a storm at Cyborg's recent actions, not even sparing Starfire some of the more colorful choice of words.

"To think Robin and her were…BLAST!" Argent ended with a fuming pout, tapping one foot against the tiled floor and folding her arms over her chest. "How can they act like such wankers?"

"That is what has me so worried," Raven said, turning off the screen, sitting up from her seat and quickly reached over to take one of Argent's arm. "Come with me, we need to talk before the rest get here."

"What's the rush?" Argent wondered, letting her dark friend drag her away.

"I need to talk to you in private about how to deal with this situation," Raven said, leading Argent to her room. She hated to allow anyone in her room, but she was slowly allowing some of the few female members on the team to enter her sanctuary, and only on rare occasions, such as this one.

When they were safely in her room, Raven locked her door and made sure her own personal wards were activated to alert her should anyone approach her door. Argent calmly watched her friend act very uncharactiscally hasty to insure they had absolute privacy. It was rare to see the empathy so flustered about anything, and by rare, really never.

"Okay, Raven, what's the deal? I've never seen you like this. I don't think any of us have seen you like this," Argent said suddenly, beginning to feel worried for her stressing teammate.

"It's everything. The team, Robin, this weird phenomenon , everything has gotten completely out of hand," Raven replied tiredly, floating over to her bed to sit on the edge and cradle her head in her hands. "It's as if everything is suddenly fallen apart around us and powerless to stop it. I don't know what caused that weird energy surge that appeared in the museum, all I know is that Slade was after something there, but for some reason it affected Robin rather than him, and now Robin is this super-powered being, working alongside Blackfire, a weird girl, and now he's gone…And if that wasn't bad enough, Cyborg is turning into a real cold-hearted machine hell-bent on capturing him and locking him away." Raven looked up at Argent, showing fear and worry in her usual stoic, empty eyes. "And I'm…I'm afraid what will happen to Robin if Cyborg does get his hands on him."

"If you hadn't have told me how he and the other two nits have been acting, I'd have said you are overreacting, but that's not you. You never do. So I know things are getting crazily out of hand if you're acting like this," Argent said.

She forgot to mention how scared she was now. Argent had only been on the team for a few months, nearly a year, but in that time she had gotten to know everyone on the team, and made some bonds with them, Raven being one of them. She knew how the girl was when it came to guarding her emotions and keeping her head cool in times of crisis, but she was feeling very unsure seeing the smartest, most level-headed girl she knew start to fall apart before her. If things were indeed as bad as Raven had said, then the original team had become a liability. Whatever was affecting Cyborg was making him use the Teen Titans for some unknown, dangerous purpose. And she feared that if he was becoming obsessed with the capture of Robin, then what measures would he take to achieve that goal? Would he willingly allow other people to get hurt, as he had forced the police to confront the negatively energized Robin? Did he even stop to help the cop that had gotten gun down by the strange little brown creatures that attacked and aided him? Thinking these questions helped the plasma-wielder to understand Raven's plight, and she had never any reason in the past to question whatever concerned her friend, not even after all this.

"Hey, girl. We're gonna get Robin back and we're gonna help him, you can be sure of that," Argent said, smiling reassuringly. "I dunno what's gotten into Cy's knickers, but if he begins to abuse his authority over us, then we take him down! Simple as that!"

"But what's gotten into him? He was normal before this all happened, even after the surge. It wasn't until Robin woke up from his exposure that he started to slowly become this cybernetic tyrant," Raven questioned, mostly to herself, as she was still puzzled by the reasons for Cyborg's one-minded goal to detain their team leader. Things weren't adding up and she feared something…or someone might be behind it. Raven stood up and approached Argent. "We cannot let Cyborg continue like this, but he hasn't really done anything wrong besides his bizarre attitude change. We'll need to watch him for any more clues that mind explain this behavior and what Cyborg is really planning to do once we get Robin back."

"You thinking someone else is pulling some strings?" Argent voiced exactly what Raven was implying.

"I'm sure of nothing right now. All I do know is that we will help Robin, and if we have to do it behind everyone's back, I will do it," Raven said with firm determination, feeling her uncertainties faded away to the solid resolve that made guided her through the toughest of battles. "I don't mean to drag you into this, it may lead to serious problems in the team, but I need help, Argent. I need time to figure out what the hell is going here."

"Ah, you know you can count on me, Raven!" Argent smiled, poking herself in the chest with a thumb. "I want to help Rob too, and I don't wanna see him end up like most of the bums we've dealt with, he's too good a guy to let that happen."

"Thank you…but we cannot do anything until two days," Raven said.

"Why two days?" Argent asked.

"…Because," Raven started to say and from that point on explained what really happened to her on the roof, and her theories to her friend. Once she was done, the two began to form a plan of action and ready for when Robin came back, and hopefully, help get him back to normal…

* * *

In the Netherworld there was no telling up morning or night. No measure of sunlight could reach the rocky, dark depths of its realm, so there was no normal way of gauging time, and for the many Browns that lived in their tower, keeping track of time was too complicated for their little minds to keep track of. A Brown worked, he ate, and he slept until another Brown came along and kicked him awake. This last method was completely unacceptable to awake the tower's new ruler, yet the old Minion task-master needed the new Overlord to awaken so they may begin evilly scheming the conquest of the land above and this realm called 'Jump City'. But as he stood at the foot of the bed trying to solve his current dilemma, he began to see it would prove even more problematic.

The reason for this?

His Mistress would not stop spooning with his evilness…

"Ahem, u-uh Mistress? Our lord cannot get to conquering if you keep him in bed," spoke up Gnarl in a respective tone.

The teal-haired opened a lazy eye and extended her middle finger at the old minion. "He's mine…"

"Yes…but in all technicality you are his…so up, up, up!" gestured Gnarl with a wrinkled clawed hand, indicating for her to rise.

Once more he was replied with her middle finger.

"Wass with finga?" an idiotic sounding Brown uttered, peeking over the edge of the bed.

Gnarl just shrugged.

Quaver kept his distance, chuckling knowingly. "Best you not learn of its meaning for the time."

"Shut it, you imbecile!" snapped Gnarl, sending an irritated glare at the jester.

Instead of flinching from the hostile glare, Quaver just kept grinning madly at him.

"Insane lout," muttered Gnarl to himself, then pointed at Tira. "Get off our Overlord. We need him to begin his dark reign!"

The loud ruckus had finally began to wake the newborn Overlord, cracking one glowing eye and soon narrowing to a dangerous line when he saw all the minions and Gnarl gazing at him from around the bed.

"Gnarl?" said Overlord in a very low tone.

"Ah, you're awake, finally! Come, young master! We have much we need to accomplish! First we must locate the Red Minions and then we…" he stopped when he felt an overwhelming force lash out at him and halted the words in his throat.

Richard slowly un-spooned himself from Tira, who moaned in disappointment from losing her new favorite cuddling toy, and began to stretch his limbs, bones crackling loudly as joints loosened up. When he got off the bed, the cluster of Browns immediately backed away from the unwavering pressure emitting from him, his body began to ripple and he was dressed in his full suit of armor, only then did he give Gnarl his full attention.

"I was sleeping soundly, Gnarl…the first time in weeks," he said in that low tone, almost growling out each word. "I finally get to sleep and not be plagued by dreams of my past, and you had to wake me."

Gnarl tried to think of a reasonable excuse for his actions, but with the lack of control of his throat, he couldn't bring out any defense on his part.

"I understand we need to look for these Red minions, Gnarl. Soul Edge has already informed me of the importance of fixing the tower and restoring it to its prime, but I will dictate when and how things are done," decreed Richard, and then realized that none of the minions had moved since he awoke. Curious, he instinctive sent a mental command to them, and they all started fumbling away from the bed and stood in a straight line before him, including Gnarl. "Hmm, now that was interesting."

Gnarl finally feeling his vocal cords obeying his own will cleared his throat with a cough. "Y-Yes, it seems you have learned how to use your will to control your minions, sire…and I forgot how disquieting it is for an Overlord to mentally move me where he desires."

Quaver started snickering more in the background. "It would appear our master is already living up to his namesake and filling his previous predecessor's iron boots!"

"So it would seem," agreed Gnarl, amazed with the quickness and power this new Overlord had over the minions. "His unholiness has already learned how to control us minions with his will…all of us."

"Is it wrong that I can make you move wherever I like?" questioned Richard in more of a demanding tone.

"N-No! Of course not, my lord…It just has been a very long time since an Overlord has actually made me move as his will demanded," revealed Gnarl. "I'm too old for normal labor like these younger idiots, so they never bothered to command me."

Richard took note of that, having a sneaky suspicion about this greying minion. Something was a bit off about him, and not just the maniacal way he looked at things. Suddenly he felt a growing familiar presence in the back of his mind.

'_You'd do well to be on your guard about this particular minion, Richard. Something is very disquieting about his behavior,'_ said Soul Edge in agreement. _'He has been in control of himself and of the minions longer than any Overlord…I believe he may have grown too accustomed to his authority, and it would not surprise me in the least if he had his own plans. Watch him closely for now and always keep your guard up.'_

'_I plan to…now get some rest, Soul Edge. I know it's taxing for you every time you talk to me,'_ replied Richard mentally, starting to feel the strain pulling on the dark spirit. When he felt Soul Edge return to wherever he was in his mind, the young Overlord chose to take his warning to heart. Gnarl was just too quick to giving orders and it was obvious he was used to it, and that did not sit well with him. If his role was to be an Overlord, then it would be very bad to allow someone else to be giving the orders, especially to him.

Returning his attention to the present moment, he locked his gaze on Gnarl. "I'll remember that, especially the next time you wake me up without my consent."

"Y-Yes, sire!" groveled Gnarl, biting back the snarl that almost appeared on his face. _'Humph, he's only been an Overlord for one night, and he's already got a complex…hmm, things are really looking up!'_ straightening back up as carefully as his old back would allow, he clasped his claws together and gestured them at the Overlord. "So, my lord. What is first on your agenda?"

Richard immediately started to look around the room, finding its poor, patched state to be undesirable. "First thing I believe I will do is tour my tower. I need to become familiar with what we have so far…and what needs improvement…before I can begin the next step."

"Wise decision, sire! Usually, the previous Overlords we have goes out plundering…but that will have to wait," sighed Gnarl on that last bit, already disappointed that he would not be hearing any screaming or sound of battling minions yet.

Ignoring his remark, Richard started toward the throne room, but turned his head to the side. "I'm going to inspect this entire place myself. See what we can do with or without." He then marched on and left the throne room.

Tira lazily waved at him and stretched her limbs, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes. "When he does start to pillage, first thing I'm making him get is a softer bed," muttered Tira to herself, rubbing her stiff neck and shoulders.

Not realizing how good his hearing was, she heard him call from the hallway. "Pick your colors and type and I'll get you the best."

Tira squealed in joy. "My master is great!"

"Yes, he's so generous," Gnarl grumbled sarcastically, and then proceeded to follow after his new master and pointed at the group of Browns still lingering around the bed. "You idiots! You shall see that our mistress has some appropriate attire fitting of her station! We mustn't allow her to continue in rags! And I don't mean a loincloth! She's a mistress, not a slave-girl, so something pretty!"

Jumping, they started rushing around to look for suitable material to make into clothes. Tira crawled out of bed, scratching her hair some and yawning once. "I'll help out pick something, not sure exactly what they'll consider clothing from rags."

"As you wish," said Gnarl approvingly, already starting to like this mistress. Most of the women that had ever been honored to become an Overlord's mistresses usually spent their day doing nothing, save for one Mistress…

Not wishing to reminiscence over the past, Gnarl hobbled as fast as his old legs would carry him to the throne room, where he found the young Overlord already at work. He started out given orders for all the Browns to start making a catalog of all their supplies and what needed to re-supplied, take inventory of all the arsenal and what was in the armory, if there was one, then he started to find a way pathway to explore the rest of the tower, but was surprised to find there were no other staircase leading out from the throne room.

"How do you get around this place?" demanded Richard sharply, as he started to get frustrated some.

"Follow my, sire," said Gnarl, waving at him toward the balcony. "We have a very special method for moving about the different levels of the tower…I'm pretty sure we got the platforms working right this time."

Not feeling very confident in whatever he was talking about, Richard reluctantly followed Gnarl, being saluted by two pairs of armored minions in the hallway, and soon came to a semi-triangular platform with three glowing circles at each point.

"Ah, here we are, sire! These are the only working modes of transportation, the nature laws are a bit…flexed down here in the Netherworld, so we use the floating rocks to our advantage until we've inducted you properly and the Netherworld recognizes you are our one and true Overlord. We cannot work on expanding the tunnel systems to other areas of the tower," alerted Gnarl, motioning him to approaching one of the glowing circles.

Richard picked the one on the far left, but then stopped. "Are you saying that I will have to perform some kind of test to be an Overlord?"

"Yes, sire. Every one of your predecessors had to undergo a trial to prove they were the genuine material to become an Overlord. We have to have something, cannot allow just any riffraff just be our master: no, no, no!" abolished Gnarl on that last part, waving a wrinkled, clawed finger at him. "We must follow some rules, or else what's the point of having an Overlord that can't get the job done? We'd have every idiot with a sword and an evil complex in and out of her wanting the job! Granted, we've had those come along the way; can't tell you how many candidates we've tried out before you!"

"Wait…you've tried to get other people try for the position?" Richard stopped and gawked at the greying minion, thanks to his mask and helmet, the only change visible was the slight widening of his glowing eyes.

"Of course we have!" admitted Gnarl without a hint of shame, as he wobbled over to one of the circles and a floating rock with a perfectly flat surface immediately zipped over to the edge of the platform where he told. "You have no idea the messes we've had to clean up. It was one manure-brain after another! They just didn't have what it took to survive the training process, and more were lost on missions that they underestimated." He ran one finger down his goatee. "We minions cannot function without an Overlord, remember this, sire. Not all of them were bounded by family-lines. We have to have someone that can take charge and fulfill his evil role as leader, otherwise, we are nothing more than nuisances in this world…and may not seem the brightest, but we have our pride as the most terrorizing beings in all the Netherworld. We won't be stand for anyone to forget that." His beady eyes locked on Richard, trying to stand up as straight as his old, crooked back would allow. "You, though, sire have a very high chance because, for you, you do have a blood connection to the most fearsome and powerful line of Overlords that have every existed. Your lineage falls back to the very first Overlord we minions came to call master…Baron Black, and the very same man that crafted Soul Edge."

Richard instantly felt a pull from Soul Edge. _'So, that would explain partly why I like you, Richard. You're from my creator's bloodline. Hmm, all the more appropriate then, I'm satisfied with that.'_

'_Can you tell me anything about my ancestor?'_ asked Richard, wanting to find out more about his real family.

'_I did not have much time with him, as I was stolen by his brother, who sought to use my power to usurp him and prove he was the stronger of the Three Brothers,' _replied Soul Edge back.

'_Three Brothers? Who were they?'_ pondered Richard to his tenant, holding up a hand to Gnarl to pause as he looked to the side.

Gnarl realizing he was probably talking to Soul Edge took no offence. If the ancient sword wished to speak to his master, then it had to be important. So he waited, wondering exactly what the sword decided to reveal to him.

'_There were three brothers from an ancient, forgotten clan. Over the years they were killed off until only three of them were left, these three were the strongest and were unstoppable. One brother was known for his arcane mastery over all magic…this one you know well as your direct ancestor, Baron Black, and my creator. As you can see, he was also very smart to make sure his descendants always had loyal followers to aid them…hence these minions,' _said Soul Edge with some hint of admiration. Richard guessed because his ancestor created the sword, he had some respect, but then Soul Edge's tone darkened greatly.

'_The second brother was simply known as Algol…the one responsible for my banishment and stole me from my creator…in what he called 'fair combat',' _said Soul Edge venomously. _'I sought to crush the pitiful man for daring to take me from my rightful owner…but he was a Black, just like my creator and had the strength and will to keep me subdued. To keep me, he vanished from this world and came to another…the one you were brought up in, Richard. He planned to make his own start, feeling his strength alone was enough and did not need his brothers anymore, feeling they were holding him back. And thus, he started his own kingdom…becoming a hero of the weaklings he found in that world. Heh, but I got my revenge the arrogant fool. He bore a son and he was strong like his father, but his will was easily corruptible. It was only a matter of time and patience to let nature take its course, and soon the son became jealous of his father's power and aimed to claim it for himself. So like his father, he tried to steal me from Algol and that's when I struck! I possessed the fool and used him to exact my revenge on Algol for taking me from my first master!'_

'_Wait! You possessed his son? Ah, so that's where it all start him, and then later Siegfried,'_ grimaced Richard, not liking the actions the sword took, but did not really blame Soul Edge for taking the course it did.

'_Aye, I used him, just as he used me to build his kingdom and bring his idea of 'peace' to the dumb masses awed by his power,'_ remarked Soul Edge, not at all sounding caring for his actions. _'My mistake was once again underestimating the man. He overpowered me and his son, killing the lad as he did and from that death lead to the creation of the bane of my existence…Soul Calibur!'_

'_So this Algol was responsible for that swords creation? Ironic,'_ commented Richard.

'_More so that he used fragments from me to conjure that blasted thing…but in his haste, he merely made a good version of me, as the sword is quite similar to me. Such as its utter obsession to complete its task which is to destroy me! Hah hah! What a waste now for Soul Calibur now, it no longer can destroy me as I no longer exist like it. I will surpass it and my essence will live on in you.__But enough talk of that wretched soul and that annoying sword. There is one more brother I must tell you, the last and by no means, the least powerful: William Black.'_

'_William Black?'_ repeated Richard, feeling a deep pull from hearing that name.

'_Indeed, out of the three brothers, he was the wisest and truth be told, the strongest of the three. It was because of him that the discovery of the three great powers: Will, Strength, and Skill. He mastered these powers and pushed beyond the limits mere mortals could dream to achieve. He taught his two brothers, the Baron and Algol, but then his focus fell upon The Court…and there my knowledge ends for by the time William Black vanished, I was stolen by Algol and taken to that infernal realm,'_ finished Soul Edge.

'_Do you think any knowledge of William may be left?' _wondered Richard.

'_Ask Gnarl, if he indeed one of the original minions that served Baron Black, then he would know the fate of William,'_ advised Soul Edge, and then took that moment to once more return to resting.

Richard unfocused from his mind and became alert to his surroundings once more, drawing his attention to the old, greying Brown. "Gnarl, have you heard the name William Black?"

"William?" uttered Gnarl. "Yes, I've heard of that accursed name! He was the one responsible for the birth of Heroes…and his confounded Heroes Guild! We've had our fair share of those goodie-too-shoes that spawned from that wretched place!"

"I see…so William was a good guy," said Richard, smiling at the knowledge that not all in his family were completely evil…what would that mean for him?

"To be sure, but his descendants let the power from his blood get to him. Although they still referred to themselves as Heroes, they were used their powers to abuse and frighten the people…now those Heroes were fun to be around! I still remember the drinking contest we had during one Overlord's anniversary, celebrating his twentieth year as our ruler…but then sadly died after falling off his own balcony after winning the drinking contest…ahem…" said Gnarl, looking down sadly. "And I was just starting to like him, oh well. That's the way of things, but around that time, a new master that was a direct ascendant from Baron Black came along and took his rightful place as our Overlord. Great lad, and very cunning, too…but he wasn't much into obtaining a mistress. We halfway feared the line would have died with him…that is until he finally decided to have children. What a relief that was for us, sire."

Richard just narrowed his eyes down at Gnarl. "…Grand."

"Well, if that's all for now, sire. We best continue the expectation," said Gnarl, gesturing to the floating rock. "Go ahead and use the floating rock. It will transport you to your Forge."

"Hmm, I guess that's as good a place as any to start," grumbled Richard, walking to the rock and stepped on it…sadly, as soon as he put his full weight on the rock, it started to shake and soon began to plummet down into the seemingly endless pit below.

"Master!" cried Gnarl when he saw his master fall to what he instantly knew was certain death.

Richard was nearly completely off the platform when a pair of strong hands instantly grabbed him and pushed him back onto the ledge.

"Be lucky I want you to fulfill your promise to me, Overlord…otherwise I would have enjoyed seeing you fall to your death," mused Blackfire as she floated up from the edge and helping Richard right himself.

"…Thanks," said Richard softly.

Blackfire brushed him off. "Just don't do that again. I'm not going to keep doing that if this becomes a regular occurrence with you."

"Right…" replied Richard, turning back to Gnarl and glaring heatedly at him. "Mind explaining why that rock nearly took me to my grave?"

"My apology's, sire. I was sure we worked out the bugs with that thing…I guess we are in far dire shape than I thought. If only we had a Tower Heart, it would power everything in the tower and we wouldn't have such difficulties," sighed Gnarl to himself. "Sadly, the last one we had vanished during The Great Cataclysm…and we do not have any knowledge on how to construct another."

"What did this Tower Heart do?" asked Blackfire.

"In a word, it was the full center of power for an Overlord. It collected magical energy from all around it, powering the Overlord and growing as the Overlord grew. It was a symbiotic relationship that allowed whoever was chosen as Overlord to have all the previous powers gained from the old ones," Gnarl quickly explained.

"…So whoever got their hands on this Tower Heart would have the same powers as an Overlord, hmm?" smiled Blackfire to herself, her quick mind already working out the possibilities if she ever could get her hands on such a powerful thing.

"Yes, it was lost and we have no idea where it had gone, much like Soul Edge. Hell, it could have been blasted to another dimension all together like the sword was," grunted Gnarl. "Now then, we will try to get another floating rock to use for you, Sire. I'm sure we can fix the problem."

"Don't bother," said Richard quickly, not wishing to repeat the event that could have spelt his doom. "I think we need to secure whatever power your using before we try that again."

"Very wise, sire," said Gnarl.

"What exactly are you using to run this place?" asked Blackfire.

"The raw unstable energy of the Netherworld itself. The tower has pylons set about it to draw in that energy and use it in a functional manner…but we keep running into snags with them," admitted Gnarl, laughing nervously.

"Such as?" questioned Richard darkly.

"We used to use the Blue Minions to act as operators for the pylons. They understand and have a closer link to magic than any minion, but since we lost them, we've had to have Brown act as the operators, and as you can see, because of a Browns very short attention span, they cannot focus long enough to operate the pylons long enough," replied Gnarl.

"Hmm, so we just need someone to act as an operator," said Richard, wondering who and where they could find someone to fulfill that role until he found these newly mentioned Blue Minions. It might not seem too hard a task. After all, it was just moving rocks through the air…His eyes shot open wide as an idea flashed through his mind. "I think I already have an answer to that problem."

"You do?" gawked Gnarl.

"Hmm, I dunno what you're thinking, but I like the look in your eyes, Overlord," purred Blackfire, seeing the idea shine in his dark, glowing eyes.

"Indeed…there was someone back on earth who could move the very rocks and ground by pure will," said Richard. "She was once a Titan, in fact…but then we later found out she was working for Slade all along, but she betrayed him, too, and helped us and saved Jump City. Unfortunately, the use of her full powers turned her to stone."

"Then how can this statue help us then?" grumbled Blackfire.

"Because she didn't stay a statue," answered Richard instantly. "She turned back to normal at some point…except without any of her memories containing she had powers. Right now, she's attending a private school and living a normal life."

Blackfire instantly caught on to what was on his mind. "So you want to make this girl remember she had these powers and use her to operate the tower? Oooh, I like that plan, but how do you plan to get her to remember? For that matter, how do you plan to make her help you?"

"That's the question, how," hummed Richard, rubbing his clothed covered chin in thought.

"May I make a suggestion, master?" interrupted Gnarl.

"Go on."

"You could use your Dark Presence Spell on the lass," revealed Gnarl, waving a small hand like it was the most obvious explanation.

"My what?" uttered Richard in confusion.

"All Overlords have the ability to bend others to their dark will," explained Gnarl. "Anyone charged with that dark energy will become your slave and will do whatever your bid…but this really is just a side-effect from the spells real name: Lightning Whip. As its name states, you will shoot out lightning and it will strike whoever you desire with your dark energy, using enough to enslave them…or to kill them by charging them with too much energy."

"You were emitting electricity from your hands when I met you on the roof of the museum," Blackfire pointed out.

Richard extended out his hands and called forth that energy and found it obeyed him immediately. A whip of lightning lashed out harmless at the air and crackled until he willed the energy to stop. "Hmm, now that opens up many possibilities."

"Quite so, sire," snickered Gnarl evilly. "Once you start your conquering in earnest, you will be able to make as many slaves as you desire with that simple spell."

Richard clinched his fist, sparks of dark energy crackling around it. "Then we just solved our problem. I'll need to return to earth to obtain the girl, but getting to her won't be a problem…"

"It'll be your ex-teammates that will be," deduced Blackfire as she noticed his sudden hesitance.

"Hmm, plus that immortal and Slade," reminded Richard. "They'll no doubt be on the lookout for me, and if I return now, they will probably set a trap up for me."

"Then we need to wait until you are strong enough to deal with your enemies," said Gnarl simply. "We cannot afford to lose you, not when we've finally found you, my Overlord."

"Does he have to go himself? Can't we just bring her here?" suggested Blackfire.

That made Richard stop and nearly smack himself for being an idiot. "You're right. We just need to get her. I don't need to be there directly, so long as we bring her here, then I can try this spell on her, and then we've solved one problem around here."

"I like the idea, sire!" smiled Gnarl in maniacal glee. "I will ready Giblet and another squad of Browns to accompany him and retrieve this girl at once!"

"Wait," Richard called out, then turned to the exiled alien princess. "I'm asking a lot, but I want you to go get her."

"Why me?" Blackfire shot back with an annoyed glare.

"…Because I trust you to get it done quick and quiet," admitted Richard. "You can be subtle when you want to be, and the sooner we have her, the better."

"I don't take orders," said Blackfire lowly, her eyes lighting up threateningly.

"Look at it this way. The sooner you help me get this tower running better, the sooner I can help you get your home planet back," retorted Richard darkly. "Once I have established a proper, working tower, then I can focus all my efforts into aiding you, Blackfire, I promise."

Blackfire groaned and started stomping away. "Fine! I'll do the damn deed." She then stopped as she realized something. "Just who the hell am I kidnapping anyway?"

Were it not for his masked face, they would have seen the evil smile that spread across his face. "Her name is Terra…"

* * *

List of possible candidate: (If there are no votes for a candidate with the next four chapters, they will be removed.)

**Argent (7)*********

**Kitten (5) *******

**Terra (11)*************

**Wonder Woman (7)*********

**Harley Quinn (7)**********

**Poison Ivy (10)************

**Shirley Valentine (4)******

**Wonder Girl (Donna Troy) (4)******

**Ravager (Rose Wilson) (4)******

**Batgirl (1)***

**Galatea (1)*****


	6. Chapter 6

**Disclaimer:** I do not own _Teen Titans_ or _Overlord_, _Soul Calibur IV_, _Fable_, _Legacy of Kain_, _The_ _Legend of Dragoon_, _Prototype, Infamous, _plus more to come. They are the rightful property of Cartoon Network/DC Comics, Namco, Triumph Studios, Lionhead Studios, Silicon Knight/Crystal Dynamics, and Sony Computer Entertainment, etc. Any claim I have is merely the plot and making nothing from this.

**(**Lord Darkmoon: We're back once again. Sorry, the minions are too busy this time to make any jibs or remarks...considering any Minion caught not working right now will be fed to the dragons, and they never tire of eating.

Gnarl: We may wish to stop doing that, Sire.

Lord Darkmoon: And why is that?

Gnarl: It seems the Browns are giving the dragons indigestion and making them turn from red scales to a sickly green shade.

Lord Darkmoon: Fine, any Minion caught not working will simply be thrown into the pot of melted chocolate and fed to the other Minions.

Giblet: Really!?

Gnarl: ….Was that such a good idea, Sire?

Lord Darkmoon: It'll keep them busy…and out of my hair…so yeah, I think its fine.)

**xXx**

**Black Trust**

Cyborg had assembled all the Teen Titans inside the tower. He had them congregate in the Common Room. It was slightly crowded, especially with the additional new members they had just recruited. One of them was still questionable to him, considering it was only a short time ago she was much like Jinx and was considered an enemy, but now she was on their side and for the moment he liked the strategic advantage in numbers. She kept in the back with her arms folded across her chest and glaring at everyone through the single eye-hole of her orange-black mask. Her attire was mostly a blue skin suit with black material pants, tank top, and armguards, with grey plating over her shoulders, elbows and knees. On her back were two katana and a grey utility belt similar to the one Robin liked to use…and the same as Slade.

Her codename was Ravager and she was in fact, Slade's daughter.

Or claimed to be his daughter, he wasn't sure and right now he did not have the time to figure it out. All that mattered was she was another set of eyes to track Robin down. Next to the proclaimed daughter of their worst enemy was Raven and Argent. He could see the two girls talking to the new Titan, reassuring that the new girl was welcomed on their team.

That was only part of what they were talking about…

Last night, Raven and Argent had made a pact to investigate the matter on their own after Raven was done explaining the situation to the silver-skinned girl. Argent was more than willing to help her out, but she knew they would need more help if they were going to perform this Coop behind Cyborg's back. Raven target Ravager because she was brand-new on the team and wasn't influence by anyone on the team save for one person…Robin. He was the one that bonded more with her, tried his hardest to show that she was truly part of their family-like relationship. Hence why she was not at all happy about being there, she was not at all pleased that they were going after Robin like he was some common thug.

"This is bullshit…I don't care if you'll excuse my language, but this really is bullshit!" Ravager hissed lowly through her clinched teeth.

"Exactly, that's why we need your help," Raven whispered back, her hood was up so no one could catch her facial expressions, which were much like Ravager's, snarling.

"I'm in. There's no way I'm letting Robin hang after all he's done for me," Ravager said, clinching her hands tightly around her arms, shooting a brief glare at Cyborg. "If I can get Cyborg alone…I can solve all our problems."

"That'll only make it worse, especially for Robin right now," Raven warned, although she had similar thoughts about her so-called teammates.

"All we gotta do for now is keep everyone who we can't trust busy, until the appointed time and find out what the real truth about all this," Argent added, moving in closer so no one could hear them.

Raven sensed someone approached behind her and she gave a quick hand gesture to them to change the topic. "So you think some of your connections might be able to help track Robin?" she said normally.

Ravager was much like Robin and her father in terms of subtlety. She knew the code and played along without batting her visible eye. "Yeah, I think I can use some of my resources to find out where he might be."

"Friends, what are you talking about?" Starfire asked, who was the one walking over to them. She had noticed them conversing together and was curious about what they could be talking about.

Raven regarded her offhandedly. "I was hoping that Ravager might have some methods that could help us track down Robin. I figured since she might have access to some of Slade's own stuff, we could keep taps on him while at the same time using his resources to help track Robin. Slade has a known obsession when it comes to Robin, so it wouldn't be surprising that he is also looking for the missing Boy Wonder."

"Oh, thank you, Ravager. I do appreciate your aid in this search, any that you can provide!" Starfire thanked deeply.

Ravager heard a very faint ripping sound and her eye darted quickly to Raven. Just underneath her cloak, she spotted the empath had dug her nails into her own arm, inadvertly ripping right through the material. She wondered just how sharp her nails had to be to do that and wondered if she might have drawn blood. As if catching that particular thought process, Raven stopped her hand and tugged her cloak over her arm.

Ravager hid the smirk that threatened to cross her face. _I'd be pissed off too if my best friend treated her own boyfriend like a psychopath…or maybe it's more than that._

"Hey, red-top. I think I see Cyborg waving for you to go help him start this meeting," Ravager said quickly, jerking her thumb at the said Titan.

"Oh! Then we better go help him, right, friend Raven?" Starfire said.

Raven narrowed her eyes. Starfire had been using the friend word just a bit too much lately and it was really getting on her nerves. It was as if she was acting that there was nothing wrong, as if they weren't all here to discuss the capture of the man she loved.

"I'll catch up in a second. You go on ahead," Raven suggested with her blank-tone voice, but none of them realized she was counting from ten to one to keep herself under control near the redhead.

"Okay, friend Raven," Starfire said and finally left.

Right after she left, Speedy suddenly came up to the little group. "You okay?" he said directly to Raven.

"Yeah, why are you asking?" Raven said a bit roughly.

"Cuz, I was watching you guys when Starfire came over, and I couldn't help but notice the droplets of blood that fell under your cloak," Speedy said, pointing down at the ground, right at her foot.

Raven glanced down and curse that the tell-tale sign of blood droplets had sprinkled right by her foot. Discretely, she placed her foot over the blood and started rubbing them into the carpet with the sole of her boot.

"Mind telling me what's really going on?" Speedy asked.

"So you noticed, too?" Argent commented, folding her arms over her chest.

"Hard not to. I was trained to notice the little things and when to take the shot when it was time," Speedy stated, patting the bottom of his collapsible bow. "From the fuss that Cyborg's making out about Robin turning rogue, and the fact that not all of you are on the same page tells me there's more than meets the eye here."

Raven impulsively reached out and scanned him with her psychic touch. This was something she'd never do without asking someone's permission, but things had changed and there was too much at stake to risk it. Speedy appeared to feel the touch but did not react hostilely and just bared it until she was done. There was no trace of anger or ill-intent in his mind, just doubt about why they were all here.

"If you're done with the Jedi-mind probing, can you tell me what was so important that you had to do that?" Speedy demanded with slight irritation.

"Sorry…" Raven apologized and leaned in, motioning for him to do the same after shooting her gaze around the room. Everyone was paying attention more to Cyborg as he started up catching them all up with the exhibit incident. "This doesn't go beyond us unless I think someone can be trusted…and right now that's very limited. What happened at the museum was not what anyone expected to happen, but to shorten it up: Robin was exposed to something full of powerful negative, dark energy and it changed him into something…different. We took him back to the tower and tried to figure out what happened to him, but then Cyborg decided that Robin was too dangerous and had to be contained…indefinitely if necessary. I didn't want to do that to Robin if he proved he wasn't a threat, and then Robin woke up and he seemed to have enough mental stability to be reasoned with, that is until Cyborg attacked him and Robin fled for his own safety…" She explained the rest of it, from when they started their search to the scene in front of the museum, to when Robin disappeared with an unknown girl and Blackfire.

"That doesn't make sense!" Speedy said quietly. "That doesn't sound like Cy at all; or Robin for that matter!"

Raven waved her hand to caution him to keep quiet. "I know…but things have been getting out of hand like this since the museum, and since then, Cyborg had taken charge of the Titans without question and is too focused on Robin's capture, regardless of how it's done. I managed to get Beast Boy to tell me what happened after Cyborg shot at Robin and what he told me made me feel that something else is going on here. Something's tampering with Cyborg's judgment, that much is clear, but he refused to scan himself for any tampering to his system, so we can't trust Cyborg until he is checked out."

"Why not just force him? Shut him off and run a diagnostic on all his systems?" Speedy questioned.

"Because Cyborg has kept himself linked up with the tower's security and network since we got back. We can't force him to shut down until he unlinks himself, because he can easily turn the tower's defenses on anyone who tries, and even if we did manage to shut him down, the computer would prevent it. Someone is playing with us and they are making sure that Cyborg remains active until Robin is caught," Raven answered.

"Any clues as to whom?" Speedy asked.

"I want to say Slade but if he could do something like this, he'd have done so a long time ago," Raven replied without hesitation, giving Ravager an apologetic look, who just shrugged. "It could be anyone, even someone we've never tackled with until now. What is important is that we get to Robin before Cyborg or anyone that believes his story."

"Hmm, I want to assume who it could be, but that would be fatal right now. And I know Robin enough that he wouldn't go nuts like this without good reason," Speedy remarked.

"So…you with us?" Ravager questioned, her visible eye narrowing at him.

"I want to know what exactly is going on. So yeah, until I know what the deal is with Robin, I'll help you guys…and I'll try and see who else on my team might be willing to help," Speedy vowed.

"…Understand…we can't let anyone we can't trust know about this, not just Cyborg but the rest of my team…I don't give a damn if it was in the heat of the moment or what, but they did nothing to help Robin except chase him down," Raven said and a hint of redness glowed in her eyes before it quickly vanished. "I want to help Robin and I'll be damned if I let him be betrayed again by anyone he called a friend."

Speedy was slightly afraid of this side of the empath. He heard that Raven could be scary if she wanted to be, but he never took that serious as she was always so devoid of anything, but this girl before him was someone he did not want to make an enemy. This whole thing had changed the original founders of the Teen Titans…and he feared it was more for the worse than anything. What was happening right now could literally tear the team apart, the minimum throw them all into a private civil war, neither one would end well, but he had to know the truth before he was shooting blind for the wrong target. That was a lesson his mentor and guardian Green Arrow had drilled into his thick skull since he first picked up a bow: He had to know he was aiming true before it would hit its mark.

"Got it," Speedy slowly said.

**xXx**

Getting herself prepared in the Netherworld, Blackfire was going over the plan with the young Overlord once more. "Your target will be attending Jump Private Institute. She's staying in a dormitory only accessible for girls. The boy's dorm is located on the far side, so you won't have to worry about them."

"How do you know where she'll be in this place?" Blackfire questioned in curiosity after he gave her the room number and a brief description of her target.

Richard answered with a bit of hesitation. "Kept taps on her in case she was pretending all the time that she wasn't a short-timed apprentice of Slade. Her powers were too dangerous to just leave her unchecked."

"Just how strong is she?" Blackfire pondered.

"She stopped a volcano from destroying Jump City, although it caused her entire body to turn to stone. We still don't understand how she turned back, but I have a feeling part of her still remembers what she did, but after she mentally suppressed that part of her life, she can be what she really wanted to be, a normal girl," Richard replied, reclining on his throne.

Tira was sitting by his right leg, hugging it lovingly. She finally had somewhat decent clothes on, or what could be considered decent. Her ripped shirt and bra were replaced with a simple brown corset, enough to give her some modesty, but still flashed most of her cleavage, leaving nothing for the imagination. She changed out her torn pants for some tight, leather trousers and laced hunting boots the Minions had fashioned for her. Where exactly they got leather, or for that matter what type of leather it was made from, left the ex-ruler of Tamaran in question.

Blackfire was not bothered at all by the psycho girl's affection, regarding her fawning really as the expected behavior of a slave: or Mistress in this case. Blackfire was used to the type of scene from some of the alien courts she had visited during her rogue space-traveling. She couldn't ever see herself sitting on the ground like some common trash and fawning herself to some man's leg. Now the large spot on the armrest of his left arm, she could see herself resting comfortably against…

_Where the fuck did that thought come from?!_ Blackfire yelled in her mind. _I can't believe I even entertained such a thought…hmm, but still, a woman needs a strong man at some point and he is showing some good signs of being a potentially tyrannical leader. Mmm, just my type. Argh! I'm doing it again! I need to get away from him. This is so not going the way I want it to go!"_

This mission would be a great distraction to get clear of this imposing Overlord in-the-making. Something about him seemed to draw in power and everyone around him. If she wasn't careful, she may end up getting in more than she bargained for.

Although, that didn't mean she couldn't enjoy some of the benefits this alliance had to offer, right? One of them getting to enjoy the uprising of the man her sister had backstabbed.

It was just too delicious for her to believe. She never in her wildest dreams would have thought her weak, little sister would do such a cruel hearted act, but she did! And what a dark harvest her betrayal had sowed. The idiot had no idea what she had helped make with her actions. It was the first time she felt she had a chance to finally to put her sister in her place! It was just a matter of time now…that is if she could stop letting her mind wander where it shouldn't toward the dark, armored hero she kept gazing at out of the corner of her eye.

The little, greying servant that had labeled himself the minion master of the Overlord wobbled up to her. "Once you have achieved your objective, return here so his evilness may dominate her with his Presence Spell. With her in our midst, we can finally get this tower's gravitational system working properly again."

Blackfire had half a mind to blast the disgusting little thing right there for speaking up as he did. The little cretin was just too bossy for her liking and she did not trust the minion at all. The ex-hero appeared to feel the same as he slowly tilted his head and clinched his hand and tapped the armrest, the same one that she had been eyeing for a moment.

"I can speak for myself, Gnarl. There is more to consider than just a simple kidnapping," Overlord stated.

"What's so complicated about this mission, Sire? All she has to do is go to a city and find the girl and just drag her by her locks back here," Gnarl growled.

The Overlord once more tapped the armrest. "Because the rules you understand do not apply to the world I was raised in. Humans have advanced technology to the point it can rival magic. And you're forgetting: Blackfire is a known criminal over there and there are two organizations to worry about." He held up one metal-clawed finger. "One is my ex-team, The Teen Titans, and they'll be looking for her since she was with me when I escaped." He held up another finger. "The other group is known as the Justice League. My team consisted of young superheroes, some of them being the sidekicks of members of the Justice League, who are much older and more skilled and much more powerful. They both aim to stop criminals and injustice in any form. In a simpler term that you can understand: Stop Evil."

"Bah, Heroes are all alike in the end, they can bleed just the same as a cornered sheep," Gnarl brushed off.

The Overlord narrowed his glowing eyes at the Minion-master. "All the same. We will accomplish this mission with caution. We are after all, under powered at that moment. Even you are wise enough to see that we cannot do as we please until we build up our power and resources."

"Sire, I feel that we should…"

"Bite your tongue," The Overlord suddenly commanded.

Gnarl felt his mouth work on its own and he bit down on his own forked tongue. "Ouch!"

"Next time I have to give a command…it will involve jumping from the balcony," the Overlord growled softly.

"A-Aye, Sire…" Gnarl murmured with a snarl on his lips.

"Now then," Richard snapped his attention back to Blackfire. "The Titans will no doubt be looking for any signs of us to resurface…so we'll just have to change things up a bit…Blackfire, if you come up to me, please."

She gave him an inquisitive look but conceded to his wish and approached the throne.

"What I have in mind is going to take a big part of trust from the both of us, Blackfire. If you can trust me, I'll give you the keys to an empire," Richard said as he extended his hand out to the ex-empress.

"Just what are you planning on doing?" Blackfire sneered, glaring at the clawed hand.

"Giving you something that will help you with this mission and more," Richard replied with his hand still out to her. "All you have to do is trust me."

Blackfire felt all her warning signals go off. She had practically screamed at him that she did not trust a single soul other than her own. How did he expect her to do so with just a drop of a hat like that? He was up to something as she suspected he would at some point. Obviously, that evil sword was finally corrupting him and he was giving into his new nature like an earth shark to water.

She wanted to blow him away. She figured she could at least wound him enough to fly off. That is, if she knew how to get the hell out of the Netherworld, and for that matter, back to her own dimension. She then realized that the ex-Boy Wonder was counting on that desperation. She was locked here with him and she wouldn't be able to leave, until he said she could. She was just as good of a prisoner as she was a guest with him holding the keys to her cell.

"Want to go?" Richard suddenly said, snapping his fingers at the minions. "Activate the portal! Connect it to the dimension you found me, now!"

Blackfire jumped away when the center of the room came to life as the transporter activated and a hole opened up in the middle of the circular floor. Lightning crackled thickly as the device spun wildly as it connected to its desired location.

"What's your game, Robin?" Blackfire demanded.

"I've forsaken that name, don't forget it again. I am Overlord now and I'm giving you one last choice, Blackfire," Richard stated darkly. He gestured to the opened portal. "This will be my final offer to you. Help me and I will do all in my power to help you. If you do not, then leave, never try to come to me for help again, because I will see you as an enemy and I will destroy you."

Blackfire frowned angrily at the portal. She could just make her escape and get out of this situation while she still had a chance, but lose her chance to regain all she wanted back. If she accepted, there was no telling just what she could gain with him as an ally while leaving herself open to unforeseen risks.

"How…" Blackfire groaned in frustration. "How can I know for sure you can keep your promise?"

"You just have to put faith in me in this. If you can take that one step, I'll help you go further than you could on your own," Richard declared, once more reaching out his hand to her.

Blackfire wanted to just fly through the portal to get away, be done with this growing craziness and just treat it like a bad memory. That stopped her. She looked back at all her memories and every single one of them turned out bad. They were all done because she had done things on her own. Did she want to keep following that path? Would she keep following that pattern as long as she kept running away like she wanted to; let it turn into a bad memory? The person sitting before her was not the heroic, golden boy that had her sister's affection. He was hurt and angry. He had motive that she could rely on, it was the only thing she could trust so far.

"…I-If I do trust you…will you do everything I want? Even if that means killing Starfire?" Blackfire questioned critically. She took one step toward the throne. "Will you allow me to kill her?"

The young Overlord sighed and she thought she had him. He wasn't going to change and was about to throw that in his face, when he spoke before she could.

"I never would have considered such a thought. Starfire…I loved her and in her darkest moments I was there to lend her strength and give her the courage to succeed where she couldn't alone. I'm offering you the exact same, Blackfire. Not love, no. You laugh at that emotion, I know. What I want is to know that you will be there when I need someone when I fall down, someone that will help me when the darkness falls over me. But I want to know now, Blackfire. I wish to avoid that pain again…for I will not fall prey to it again," Richard said with raw emotion.

Tira looked up at him and hugged his leg more tenderly; wanting to remind him he had her now. He looked down in response and the anger burning in his eyes deemed.

Blackfire thought to herself, could she do that? Could she risk everything by agreeing to his terms? Staring down at Tira, using her as an example what she could gain, she saw the instant affect she had over the Overlord. He took her existence into consideration and if she could prove herself to him, would she have that same influence on him? Was that something she even wanted?

"You didn't answer my question, Overlord? If it came right down to the moment when her life hangs in the balance…will you allow me to end her life?" Blackfire repeated vehemently and gazed at him intensely.

This was the moment that would decide for her if she could and she knew he understood this. It was all on him now.

He slumped back against his throne and studied her. Oh, he knew what she wanted to hear, what she was expecting him to saw. The old him might have tried to make a gamble and play it up just to gain her trust. To get her to do as he needed her to act, but he actually wanted her on his side. But she needed to give him just a bit of proof that she would help him and not stab him in the back like her sister had. To gain that he would have to return that trust in the same manner that he was asking of her, though…

"I said that I wouldn't kill her myself. I owe her that much out of respect, but if I must, I'll crush her. I'll make her as helpless and frightened as she made me when she turned on me and I will allow you to tell me how you want her destroyed," The Overlord decreed. "That I will do for you."

His voice never wavered and the conviction in it was solid. Blackfire could not find a single hint that he was going to go back on his word. Like before, she could not detect a lie, he meant every single word as he had done with her since they started collaborating. Her nature wanted her to just shoot him in the face and fly away, laughing at him as she got away. It was a part of her, deep inside, that made her suppress her impulse.

She approached the throne and gave him her hand, placing it on his and sitting down on the armrest of his throne. "Better make this all worth it to me, Dark Wonder…"

He did not expect his heart to jump with so much excitement when she took his hand. It pounded thickly and sent his blood flowing hot and fast. "You won't regret a second of it."

"Prove it then," Blackfire challenged.

"As the lady wishes," he replied and then snatched his hand away from her and surprised her when he grabbed her shoulder and dug his clawed hand into her flesh.

From his shoulder down to the hand he had placed on her, his armor and flesh rippled into black-muscle-like tissue with an inner red glow. The arm re-crafted on itself and bulged out and snaked like tendrils, the same that were used to devour the Reaper thug in the ally. Blackfire recognized this and felt she had been betrayed, but it was too late to do anything! The tendrils had borrowed into her body and she screamed as the black mass wormed its way into her body. The Overlord groaned some as the mass poured out of him, still not used to the pain that followed the change.

Through the intense pain that burned through her body as the tendrils worked their way through, she thought she was going stay conscious to witness her body be absorbed into his. What she saw in her blurring vision was The Overlord's hand letting go of her and the tendrils reformed into his arm. The last trails of black tendrils he had sent into her body finished swirling into her flesh and she felt her chest burning like a sun in annoy. She started to fall then and he was up from his throne and caught her. In her ear she thought she heard him whispering words of apology.

Holding her tightly, the ex-hero cradled her to his chest. "I'm so sorry, Blackfire…be strong! You can survive this!"

He saw the last faint trails of the black mass he injected into her body disappear into her chest and she blissfully blacked out.

"Master?! What did you do to her?!" Tira exclaimed in amazement. "Did you kill her?"

"No, Tira…it was a risk I took, a very dangerous one," he replied, picking Blackfire up bridal-style and carried her to the bedroom.

"S-Sire…What…What the hell kind of spell was that!?" Gnarl demanded in fear and awe.

"A gift of Soul Edge," Richard explained over his shoulder.

He and the sword had talked about his special ability to assimilate organic and even inorganic matter to heal his body and even create some unique changes if he deemed. Richard remembered that he changed form when he devoured that Reaper and wondered to himself if he could pass that ability on somehow. In response, Soul Edge had explained that he could with a bit of concentration. It was a pricy risk to take, though. The worst scenario was that he ended up devouring Blackfire by accident and killing her…or warping her into something horrid and mindless.

By having her believe in him, he felt the chances would increase in their favor and she would respond successfully, and it showed his instinct was right. He had thought to try it on Tira, as he knew he could trust her completely…but he didn't want to risk killing her at all. So he picked Blackfire to be his first test subject so if it did fail, it wouldn't be such a bad loss as it would have been with Tira. Now that he understood how it worked, he felt he could perform the technique somewhat easier. With practice, he knew it would be nothing at all to replicate and he already knew just who else he wanted to do it on.

"Tira, follow me," he commanded.

As faithful as she had proven, she obeyed and was by his side in a flash.

"What I did to Blackfire was to try and strengthen my allies and I plan to do the same with you, but I had to be sure that it worked," he revealed.

"You could have tried it out on me, I would have accepted your gift happily," Tira replied.

"Yes, but out of the two of you…you're more important to me than she is right now," Richard admitted.

"Aww, my master is so kind to care for me so much!" Tira beamed and did a happy twirl without slowing down her pace.

"Yeah…well, it worked so once Blackfire wakes up and adjusts to the new changes I made on her, which might not be pleasant to me, I will perform it on you," Richard said. "I want to see how well she takes to it to see if there are any bad side-effects."

"Oh! You mean, I'll be able like you?" Tira said with stars in her eyes.

"In a sense. Soul Edge said that I can re-create the shifting ability I possess, but for those that I do this on won't be as strong as I am. They'll have to work on strengthening it somehow and each one will be unique, so there's no telling how they will develop," Richard replied just as they entered the bedroom.

He placed Blackfire on the bed and tried to lay her down comfortably.

"Sire! I must protest! Do you think it is wise to give your powers to others?! I mean, after all, what's the point of being an all-powerful Overlord when he gives all his power away?!" Gnarl screamed in displeasure.

"The smart kind. Absolute power corrupts, Gnarl, no matter the soul. If I spread that power around, maybe I can deter that a bit, and I want my precious ones to be able to protect themselves. I am going to have enemies and they will play by their own rules or no rules at all. I won't have the few people I decide to trust to be used as tools to get back at me," Richard answered.

"It sounds completely foolish…spreading power around. It's unseemly for an Overlord…not at all evil," Gnarl snipped his opinion.

"Luckily, that chose is not up to you," the new Overlord said lowly, beginning to get irritated with the Minion-master.

Gnarl shot a glare at his master as he knew the new ruler of darkness had his attention on the brunette girl. This one was proving to be the most stubborn of all Overlords. He'd have to trend carefully…

"I'll pretend you didn't just do that," Richard said without looking at him and breaking the greying Minion out of his train of thought.

Gnarl paled and averted his eyes. "S-Sorry, Sire." Oh, yes. He would definitely need to be wary of this one's actions.

"Whatever," Richard grumbled.

Quaver remained in the back, just smirking and snickering at the treatment his superior was receiving from their new Overlord. It was a refreshing sign to see the Minion-Master be taken down a peg rather than him, who was usually made the whipping-minion for everyone's irritation. He did not missed the beatings that came with the job, but he had a role to play now that the Minions had an Overlord once again. He rubbed the edge of his fake eye as he continued to watch Gnarl's growing frustration with trying to boss around the young master.

_Hehe, your little games have come to an end, Gnarl. We have a REAL Overlord leading us and I will see that he leads us as an Overlord is supposed to lead his faithful servants,_ Quaver thought gleefully to himself and clutched his wand tightly.

It was an hour later that Blackfire began to stir awake. Everyone had waited around her to start awakening, wondering what will happen once she was consciousness. Her eyes blinked open as she started to become aware of her surroundings and then memories flashed before them of what had happened. She jerked up screaming only to be stopped by an armored hand on her shoulders.

"Blackfire! It's okay! You're fine, everything is fine now," Richard said reassuringly.

"Like hell! You tried absorbing me, you fucking bastard!" Blackfire screamed, trying to knock his hands away from him.

He flinched as her blows really hurt. She had every right to freak out and beat on him, just he wasn't sure if he could take the abuse as he thought he heard a bone crack in his left arm from one nice blow she delivered against it with her fist. Managing to hold on, regardless, he waited until she realized he wasn't going to let go.

"Let me go!" Blackfire yelled into his face.

"If you will chill for a moment, I can explain myself and why I did what I did," Richard replied to her, gripping her shoulders tighter.

"Just shut it. I don't want to hear a thing from you!" Blackfire snapped, her eyes lighting up in warning she was going to fire her eyebeams.

"Fine, I just thought you might like to hear you've got abilities similar to mine, but if you're just gonna keep on bitching, I'll just leave you be," he jeered and pushed her away as he stood up from the bed and walked off.

"W-Wait, you gave me powers?" Blackfire gaped in shock.

"Nah, you didn't want to let me explain, so I'm just gonna leave you be," Richard replied, smirking underneath his mask.

She flew up off the bed and nearly tackled him. "You…you gave me powers?!"

"Will you listen to me now? I can explain why I did if you'll let me," Richard said.

Blackfire nodded vigorously.

"All right then. I figured the safest way for you to infiltrate the school in Jump City without being caught by anyone was to be able to hide your appearance. I remembered my shape-shifting ability from devouring that thug and Soul Edge told me that I can transfer a bit of that power to others. Now, you're not as strong as I am with it, but you'll be able to make them grow, and more importantly, you'll be able to shift like me," Richard explained.

"This…this is what you meant by trusting you, wasn't it? I had to show you that I could before you gave me this power?" Blackfire surmised.

"Yes, it was, Blackfire," he admitted truthfully and then suddenly felt the world spin when she tackled him down and started ripping his mask away. "Hey, what are you…?!"

He was quickly interrupted when she got his mask off his face and smashed her lips against his, grinding them against his teeth and nearly forcing his mouth open. He felt her body grind down against his and her hands yanking off his helm so she can run her fingers through his silvery hair. The faint taste of copper filled his mouth as their lips probably got shredded some from the force of the kiss. This was not a kiss he was used to. It was powerful and needy. The total opposite kind of kiss Starfire and him would share. At made him think about all the kisses he shared with her and compared them to this one and he found it beat them all.

He pressed his mouth against hers and she moaned eagerly as he started to respond to her ministrations. He ran his hands over her back, neither seemed to care that he was clawing up her back with his taloned gloves. The sounds of clothing tearing ripped loudly and scratched up metal was produced from the heavy make-out session. Blackfire was leaving faint nail marks in his armor when she ran them over his chest and shoulders. Richard had finally remembered that his hands were more dangerous and could possibly cause more harm than good as they roamed her body. Blackfire did not appear to care at all as she continued to lock her lips over his, as if she was trying to suck his face right off.

The two finally came up for air and Richard was left completely dazed on the cold, black stoned floor. _Holy kisses Batman…_ he mentally said to himself as his glowing eyes spun somewhat from the daze the kiss left him in.

"Mmm, better than what that space-flake sister of mine can do, huh?" Blackfire teased, looking just as blown away as him, straightening up to sit just slightly on his waist.

"That's for sure…none of them were ever like that!" Richard said out lout, shaking his head to get his dizzy vision to clear up some.

"I've always been the better one…in everything," Blackfire said huskily as she ran a finger over his chest-plate, up to his bleeding lips and caressed them tenderly.

He caught the challenge in her words and smirked up at her. "Can't wait for you to prove that."

She chuckled sensually and arched her rear up and leaned forward so she could hover over him. "Call this just a taste until I get back with the prize. I wanna give these powers a try out!"

"Just remember this, Blackfire. I gave you this power to help you hide from the Titans and your new abilities are young so you cannot take them all on…not yet," Richard reminded.

"Okay, I'll play it your way without any fuss, Overlord," Blackfire said, inching back down to his lips. "If this is what I get for giving a little trust, then I can't wait to see what's next to come."

The young Overlord himself started to entertain some nice benefits that could come with this new relationship with a villain. Blackfire planted a light kiss on him before she pushed herself off him and started to straighten her skirt, which had at some point risen up. She looked at the rest of her condition and found that the Overlord had been very overzealous in the moment. She smirked in triumph over the effect she had over him.

A curious part of her mind wondered if she could repair her clothes as he could and imaged her outfit fixed. To her amazement, where her clothes were torn, faint ripples of black-and-red mass covered the ruined areas and mended them. "Oh, sweet X'Hal…This is going to be so much fun!"

The Overlord picked himself up from the ground and placed his mask back over his face. A minion had retrieved his helm and presented it back to him. "Blackfire…"

"Mmm? Oh, yeah, yeah…I'll promise not to overdo it. I'll grab the girl and come back as soon as I can," Blackfire brushed she assumed was another warning.

"That's good to hear…but I said that you just had to watch out for the Titans. If you come across anyone else that deserves what's coming to him is fair game," the Overlord said with a dark smile under his mask.

Blackfire eyed him in wonder. "You're giving me the clear to hurt people?"

"Call it practice. The more you use your new powers the quicker they will develop," Richard replied matter-of-factly. "Do whatever you like with them."

"Oh, I love this new you!" Blackfire purred and latched herself against him, hugging him close.

"You want to know something? I like this side, too," Richard murmured to her softly and then eased her off him. "Now you have a mission to get to."

Blackfire blew him a kiss and flew off to the still active portal and ascended up into the blazing center of the roof, a few of the Browns went with her, as her escort to make sure she would return safely.

"Sire, you want to be more careful in the future. Entrusting others with power is a dangerous gambit!" Gnarl warned.

"It was a chance I had to take, Gnarl. I need her now," Richard stated firmly to the greying minion. "If I am to grow, I must gain the trust of others."

"And when you cannot gain that trust, Sire?" Gnarl questioned.

Lightning crackled over his hands. "Then I use other methods."

Gnarl grinned at that. This new Overlord was nothing like the others he had served under. He was unpredictable and had to his horror, some morals, but in a way, that was something he liked in this young man. It reminded him of another Overlord, one that he actually missed.

_I wonder just how much more of his real father is there in him?_

Gnarl wobbled off to who knows where and the throne room was busy with activity. Richard had started giving out orders to all the Minions and instructing them with clear orders, wanting to get the tower in better shape than the state it was in right now. He needed to get the tower ready to support more people along with the Minions. Once he had Terra under on his side, he could use her powers to speed up the tower's repairs, but there was no point in wasting time until she was brought to him.

Soul Edge had also been busy. He had been working on studying Richard's new body and understanding it better. It turns out his DNA was unstable. The energies that swelled up inside him from the sword's own power and the hidden suppressed powers from his heritage had caused a massive upset in his genetic structure. If he had been allowed to grow slowly into his powers since his birth, his body would have matured and stabilized with the power. But with the conflicting energy of an Overlord and his own chaotic, destructive forces merging, it left Richard's body struggling to adapt to the new changes. It was just by some twisted kind of miracle that he was able to survive the changes and not go completely insane…that might come later if Richard gives in too quickly to his dark power, and that was a great risk right now.

But because of the disruptive manipulations to him, Richard actually gained more abilities than anyone could image. Soul Edge could see it. It was all there as bare as his soul. It was just a matter of time before these powers were safe enough to allow his vessel to use. For now, he was still growing and adjusting to his new role. The boy needed time now to grow and he feared that may not be accessible. That was why he _suggested_ into Richard's subconscious mind to send Blackfire out to retrieve the Geomancer. There was too much at stake to leave to chance and the sword had too many moments in its existence to trust anything to chance...far more than anyone was aware of…

**xXx**

**A/N: **I'm going to stop the poll here. It's well established who wants who and I've worked out the final outline that includes the mistresses who were given the best reasons when casting a vote. So no need to vote anymore just review on the work, but I still will accept creative ideas from anyone so still feel free to leave one. And also…can we get a bit more creative with the reviews? All I've been seeing from people is "Good work" "More!" "Update now."

Let's explain something. Reviews are the rush anyone who writes fanfics live for. We like it when people take the time like we have in writing these fanfictions for you people to enjoy, so we feel all that time was worth the effort. Just leaving a three to four sentenced review just makes for a disappointing e-mail check and also, it doesn't inspire for faster updates. You want more chapters out? Then you need to step up and make the writer feel the need to write more. If we feel we're just wasting our time with a story, we put it on hold or stop it all together and work on something we feel is more important. So if you want to read more, you gotta get more involved. That's all I wish to say on the subject, and this will be my only time saying it. Thank you for listening and taking the time to read this.


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